DOJ Requests More Power To Hack Remote Computers 76
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. Department of Justice says it needs greater authority to hack remote computers in the course of an investigation. The agency reasons that criminal operations involving computers are become more complicated, and argues that its own capabilities need to scale up to match them. An ACLU attorney said, 'By expanding federal law enforcement's power to secretly exploit "zero-day"' vulnerabilities in software and Internet platforms, the proposal threatens to weaken Internet security for all of us.' This is particularly relevant in the wake of Heartbleed — it's been unclear whether the U.S. government knew about it before everyone else did. This request suggests that the DOJ, at least, did not abuse it — but it sure looks like they would've wanted to. You can read their request starting on page 499 of this committee meeting schedule."
Re:Do you really want to do that? (Score:4, Informative)
I don't necessarily disagree with what you are saying but you cannot really advertise a job to secure a criminal enterprise. What you are left with is either relying on only those you already know which might not be very cutting edge or seeking someone specific out and hoping they don't turn rat on you.
In the former, I will just say that I don't know how many screwed up systems and wide open home networks I have seen installed by someone's rocket scientist kid, nephew, neighbor, work IT, church buddy, or whatever that had more WTF things going on than anything correct. Even following people sporting walls full of certifications and bragging about how good they are because of them sometimes turn out to be almost worthless for even simple tasks when following them into a small business. Those are usually the most dangerous- screwed up too. I usually find them running unpatched windows 200x servers directly open to the internet and half the ports opened up because they wanted remote access or something in the network needed it. They are often sporting more infections and malware than a porn surfing teens computer- because no one ever logs onto them to see the 5 million IE pop ups and error messages until something goes horribly bad and they just reboot thinking "I fixed it again".
I'm thinking most criminals that aren't just doing it because of opportunity will already be into something like what you describe. A lot of people claim to know what they are doing but fail in spectacular ways.
Re:Illegal (Score:4, Informative)
What happens and should happen are separate things.
The concept of the king can do no wrong died a long time ago, got reborn and needs to be killed once again.