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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.
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:01PM
Not at all. They do not appear to be disputing the guilt of the suspects or the reality of the evidence collected, only the methods used. And they aren't asserting the methods were improper since they don't know what they are. They are demanding to know the methods so as to warn others and permit the Tor Project to update their software. It is the classic ACLU "Muh Constitution!" defense of the indefensible.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:35PM
Summary:
You:
The FBI using illegally obtained evidence is a problem because it changes their powers from an "ask permission" model to a "do whatever they want" model. It's possible they are already doing that and using parallel construction as their cover (it looks legal). Having any law enforcement group be able to magic evidence into existence is extremely dangerous. How do you know the evidence is even real? https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/fbi-overstated-forensic-hair-matches-in-nearly-all-criminal-trials-for-decades/2015/04/18/39c8d8c6-e515-11e4-b510-962fcfabc310_story.html [washingtonpost.com]
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31 2016, @08:41PM
Nah, just typical JMorris sticking to his guns come hell or high water. Simple facts are simply denied with cute phrases bordering on insanity with the crazy internal logic they apply.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday April 01 2016, @03:22AM
Private communications are indefensible?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 01 2016, @04:54PM
Its not indefensible. All laws in the US flow from the Constitution, for it is the document by which they gain their authority. If the constitution is ignored, then all the laws based on it are equally meaningless.