US Supreme Court allows computer searches in any jurisdiction

^{FBI Director James Koumi testifies at the Senate Intelligence Commission meeting, July 8, 2015. Photo: Michael Reynolds / EPA}

Without undue publicity, the US Supreme Court approved amendments to Rule 41 in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (pdf) , which allow lower courts to issue search warrants (hacking) of computers in any jurisdiction, that is, in any country in the world. The decision was made despite strong opposition from technology companies and human rights organizations. They believe that this excessively expands the powers of the FBI, and also opens up the possibility for unreasonable searches.

Under the current rule, 41 judges of the peace are usually restricted from issuing search warrants by their own jurisdiction. However, in some investigations of computer crimes it is not known in which jurisdiction the suspect is located. Criminals are increasingly hiding their whereabouts using anonymizers and the Tor network, so penetrating a suspect’s computer is the only way to identify him and gather evidence.

The US Department of Justice has sought rule changes since 2013. Representatives of the ministry argued their position by the fact that expanding the jurisdiction of ordinary judges when hacking computers is a natural adaptation of the rules to new technological conditions in the digital era, because searches in another jurisdiction do not contradict the latest laws, such authority should be given to judges of general jurisdiction and approved by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Chief Justice John Roberts agreed with this opinion.
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In accordance with the new amendments, now one order of the FBI gets the right to conduct searches on thousands or millions of computers.

Amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure have been sent to Congress, which should consider them before December 1, 2016: approve, reject or make changes.

Democratic senator Ron Wieden appealed to colleagues to vote against the new rules : “These amendments will seriously affect the privacy of Americans’ privacy and the extent of government authority on remote monitoring and electronic device searches. I plan to soon submit a bill that will cancel these changes, as well as require you to provide detailed information about the non-transparent process of using hacking techniques by the government, ”he said.