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FBI Resists Revealing its Tor User Identification Methods in Court

posted by CoolHand on Thursday March 31 2016, @06:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the keep-it-secret-keep-it-safe dept.

takyon writes:

The FBI is not eager to reveal (more) details about methods it used to identify Tor users as part of a child pornography case. FBI's Operation Torpedo previously unmasked Tor users by serving them malicious scripts from secretly seized .onion sites.

The FBI is resisting calls to reveal how it identified people who used a child pornography site on the Tor anonymising network. The agency was ordered to share details by a Judge presiding over a case involving one alleged user of the site. Defence lawyers said they need the information to see if the FBI exceeded its authority when indentifying users. But the Department of Justice (DoJ), acting for the FBI, said the details were irrelevant to the case. "Knowing how someone unlocked the front door provides no information about what that person did after entering the house," wrote FBI agent Daniel Alfin in court papers filed by the DoJ which were excerpted on the Vice news site.

The Judge ordered the FBI to hand over details during a court hearing in late February. The court case revolves around a "sting" the FBI carried out in early 2015 when it seized a Tor-based site called Playpen that traded in images and videos of child sexual abuse. The agency kept the site going for 13 days and used it to grab information about visitors who took part in discussion threads about images of child abuse.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31 2016, @07:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31 2016, @07:55PM (#325440)

    That is unless the whole system is just because-we-can-style a la Soviet 1960-style.

    I, for one, would like to welcome you into proper adulthood. You now see the world closer to the way it is. Your membership card is on its way!

  • (Score: 2) by bitstream on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:17PM

    by bitstream (6144) on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:17PM (#325449) Journal

    Countries based on western values are supposed to follow the law and not allow for loose wild west cops.
    It's quite well known what that 1960's soviet country ended up.

    Even worse there's a reason why western countries got ahead of the rest for a few hundred years starting with Magna Carta in 1215 and acceleration since 1845, something about a specific set of structural killer-apps..

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:23PM (#325453)

      "are supposed to" being the keyword. We've diverted from that path a while ago now...

      • (Score: 2) by bitstream on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:45PM

        by bitstream (6144) on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:45PM (#325463) Journal

        Thus America is perhaps Russia light?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31 2016, @09:08PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31 2016, @09:08PM (#325470)

          Russia hi-tech.

        • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday March 31 2016, @09:59PM

          by MostCynical (2589) on Thursday March 31 2016, @09:59PM (#325492) Journal

          Russia with more tv advertising and better "circuses" (viz. Fox 'news' and all the others)

          --
          "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex