[su_heading size=”18″ margin=”150″]A Massachusetts court rejected evidence in a child pornography case that was obtained by the FBI using malware. [/su_heading]
Christopher Soghoian from the American Civil Liberties Union said on Motherboard that it is the first time a court has rejected evidence that originates from a government hacking operation.
If you remember as SecNews wrote, a short while ago the FBI took control of a child pornography service on the Tor network, Playpen, to infiltrate the computers of pedophiles worldwide. Read the article here:
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/100641/fbi-operation-pacifier/” target=”blank” style=”soft” background=”#c5152c” color=”#0c0c0b6″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”round” icon_color=”#ffffff”]How the FBI infiltrated the inter‑network world of pedophiles[/su_button]
The federal authorities collected over a thousand IP addresses in the US. They then arrested several people based on their investigation. One of them was Alex Levin, whose lawyers asked the court not to consider the specific evidence. The lawyers argued (and the Massachusetts district judge agreed) that the operation was based on an invalid warrant.
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/103383/eikodes-paidikhs-kakopoihshs-pisw-apo-nomimes-istoselides-porno/” target=”blank” style=”soft” background=”#1547c5″ color=”#e7dad86″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”round” icon_color=”#ffffff”]Images of child abuse behind legal porn websites! [/su_button]
Specifically, the court concluded that the warrant was issued without jurisdiction and therefore was invalid from the start. Consequently, the investigation was conducted as if there was no warrant at all. Since warrantless searches are, by presumption, unreasonable, and the good-faith exception is inapplicable, the evidence must be excluded.
After this it is certain that other people who were arrested by the FBI will follow Levin's example and his lawyers in their attempt to be acquitted!
Court rules that the FBI relied on an invalid search warrant when it added malware to a Tor network child porn site. pic.twitter.com/3BzZybCOyD
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 20, 2016
And finding a district judge isn't hard. There are 4 in the same courthouse as the magistrate who OK'd the Tor hack. pic.twitter.com/Ut1fx2C0t1
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 20, 2016
Court: FBI's decision to run a child porn site to ID its users was "akin to the government itself selling drugs." pic.twitter.com/txzsebbecT
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) April 20, 2016
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/100098/fbi-hacked-1000-computers-to-shut-down-largest-child-pornography-site/” target=”blank” style=”soft” background=”#15c515″ color=”#261f1e6″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”round” icon_color=”#ffffff”]FBI| Became a Hacker to shut down the biggest child-pornography site! [/su_button]
