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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: 4, Insightful) by stormwyrm on Thursday March 31 2016, @11:52PM
Let's take the child pornography angle out of this first, because that's such a hot button that turns off people's brains. Let's make the crime different. Say you're accused of murder and are on trial. Evidence is presented that shows you might have committed the crime but the FBI refuses to tell you the methods by which it was obtained. Some secret method that analysed evidence found at the crime scene, that points to you as the murderer is all they tell you. If it were me, though, I'd sure as hell want to know what methods they used to obtain it!
The FBI has to reveal its methods in court if there is to be some semblance of justice. Otherwise you might as well call it the Star Chamber.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.