Congress allows rule permitting mass hacking by government to take effect

WASHINGTON — In a defeat for privacy advocates, Senate leaders rebuffed a last-ditch effort by a bipartisan group of senators Wednesday to allow a vote to block a new rule that allows federal agents armed with a single search warrant to hack millions of Americans' computers or smartphones at once.
That rule will now take effect Thursday.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., took to the Senate floor to seek agreement to bring up bills to stop the rule from taking effect or at least delay it for three to six months to give Congress more time to study it. Republican Senate leaders denied the three senators' requests for a vote.

Source here

I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but the above certainly couldn't come at a worse time.

Mass hacking by OUR Government, and the justification being botnets?! Come on people, how can we allow this overt abortion of privacy go unchallenged?

Is it any wonder no one trusts the Government? All to protect big corporate interests while AGAIN crapping on the little guy?

Big Brother puts on a few more pounds.

"We're hare to smash your computer into pieces, we think it's part of a botnet."

originally posted by: roadgravel
Big Brother puts on a few more pounds.

"We're hare to smash your computer into pieces, we think it's part of a botnet."

It's scary as far as I'm concerned. I understand all about the fake news rhetoric, and the dissatisfaction with the election and all of that, but things like this I consider of vital importance - rather important to fight against.

a reply to: alphabetaone

Funny how laws get past in phases throughout the world. They just past similar Snooping laws in the UK. You could almost imagine a shadow government pulling the strings to orchestrate the world.

I don't know a lot about hacking but if they hack a phone or computer couldn't they plant something or just fry it and turn it into a brick? If they do hack someone and find nothing do they have to pay to fix whatever they mess up? Shouldn't ask that one they are above the law. a reply to: alphabetaone

a reply to: alphabetaone

Problem is that even though people state they believe this is wrong, Congress goes along with spying.

It's another thing pointing to Congress selling out the People and the need to replace those politicians.

Because of the wiki leaks emails and other leaks, they feel they have a right to do the same to us

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: alphabetaone

Funny how laws get past in phases throughout the world. They just past similar Snooping laws in the UK. You could almost imagine a shadow government pulling the strings to orchestrate the world.

Yea. It always seems too, that these "laws" get passed whenever (for US anyway) when Congress is either in recess or in some way they KNOW the majority and the people would not approve what so ever. To me, when we need to distrust our Government to such a level and THEY need to distrust us (though we're giving them ALL the money that they keep us in the dark with) then something is seriously wrong.

originally posted by: roadgravel
a reply to: alphabetaone

Problem is that even though people state they believe this is wrong, Congress goes along with spying.

It's another thing pointing to Congress selling out the People and the need to replace those politicians.

Well, I don't disagree, in concept that the politicians need to be replaced...only problem I truly see, and likely we all have seen, is that it simply isn't working. Like the Roman Empire, eventually something has to give. We can only pit the unstoppable force against the immovable onject for so long.

originally posted by: irgust
I don't know a lot about hacking but if they hack a phone or computer couldn't they plant something or just fry it and turn it into a brick? If they do hack someone and find nothing do they have to pay to fix whatever they mess up? Shouldn't ask that one they are above the law. a reply to: alphabetaone

They couldn't "fry" it, if by fry you mean a melt down of the component parts of the machine. But they could absolutely render devices and computers inoperable depending on the level, method and breadth of hacking that they attempt. Just as an example, I could literally come to your house, remove a single file from your machine that would ensure it couldn't be booted back up. Now, there are safety mechanism in place to dissuade that type of scenario, but it's not impossible, and just imagine a corporation like Apple or Microsoft hopping into bed (or being forced into bed) with the Feds - it can and likely will happen especially when they create laws like these. Non-compliance would ensure fines or worse.

originally posted by: irgust
I don't know a lot about hacking but if they hack a phone or computer couldn't they plant something or just fry it and turn it into a brick? If they do hack someone and find nothing do they have to pay to fix whatever they mess up? Shouldn't ask that one they are above the law. a reply to: alphabetaone

They couldn't "fry" it, if by fry you mean a melt down of the component parts of the machine. But they could absolutely render devices and computers inoperable depending on the level, method and breadth of hacking that they attempt. Just as an example, I could literally come to your house, remove a single file from your machine that would ensure it couldn't be booted back up. Now, there are safety mechanism in place to dissuade that type of scenario, but it's not impossible, and just imagine a corporation like Apple or Microsoft hopping into bed (or being forced into bed) with the Feds - it can and likely will happen especially when they create laws like these. Non-compliance would ensure fines or worse.

What really aggravates me to no end is that I'm sure they realize that maybe half if not more, of the people that read an article like the one I sourced, are likely not to understand what they are deeming the threat, and likely hope people will simply go along with it out of an abundance of ignorance. Hacking from a Federal level simply does absolutely Zero to address what it is they professed their reasoning behind it to be - botnets. Their reverse hacking wont be able to mitigate zombie computers already infected, in fact, it would likely exacerbate the problem.

In case you're unaware of what a "botnet" is, it sounds all technical and jargony, but the reality of it is, it basically like sleeper or splinter cells in the espionage world, where they are all activated remotely without ever leaving a trail of who the iniator is...its the same for a botnet except the "sleeper cells" are dormant code in infected machines designed to respond to certain software arguments that target a host or series of hosts.