FBI defends its Child Porno website as “Good” Malware

Child pornography is definitely a dreadful practice that no one would want to exist, but it’s there with an uncountable number of people consuming the ‘digital content’ every day.

That’s the reason the US security agency FBI baked their own child Porn website “Playpen” and deployed it as bait in the dark web.

No, FBI didn’t take such action to promote child porn or to earn cash from Playpen but to catch offenders who like to entertain themselves by watching videos of innocent kids’. The story seems to present a positive image of the FBI.

The twist is that they implemented a malware in the website code which led them to the location of the porn consumers by tracking their IP address, even though the users were hiding behind the digital cover, the onion network Tor.

They even managed to hold collars of around 100 such people, the leading case out them was a Vancouver-based 62-year old school admin named Jay Michaud who surfed and downloaded content from Playpen under the username Pewter. The arrest of Michaud happened in July last year.

Coming to the bad part of the story, especially for FBI, they faced difficulties with the evidence presented in front of the court. Judges kicked out the evidence because FBI used malware in order to harvest them without obtaining a proper warrant.

However, the FBI’s view is quite different. They believe that their malware is good because the FBI guys are good guys. They don’t create their malicious software or malware with any bad intention. This thought of them has come in relation to a legal filing made by them — “A reasonable person or society would not interpret the actions taken by a law enforcement officer pursuant to a court order to be malicious.”

Well commented FBI, but you can’t busy yourself in malware coding and porn hosting just for the sake that you flaunt yourselves as the good guys running after the bad ones.

We also wrote about the Rule 41 which would empower FBI to hack any computer by obtaining a common search warrant. FBI doesn’t have to know the location of the computer in advance.

The debate whether the malware deployed by security agencies like FBI and NSA is full of ambiguous thoughts which make these agencies a hero and a villain at the time. You can’t put a malware on the internet and put the privacy of millions of users at stake.

A point of a defense that makes FBI’s act legible is that you can’t send the police officers to jail just because they have to kill potential suspects in the moments of emergency. The fight about what is right and what is wrong totally depends on the thinking methodology of an individual.

We are not taking any sides, not opposing or supporting FBI for their acts. But if something is done for a good cause, even by unwanted means, should be taken into consideration at least. We also know that the interference of these security agencies is present up to a large extent in our lives.

Some sort of limitations is a must. The Rule 41, if passed, will make FBI powerful up to an extent that no one could imagine. Hopefully, some good decision would be made, at least, cutting down the powers of the FBI.

 

 

Author: 
fossbytes.com