Evidence that the FBI obtained by hacking into a child pornography suspect's computer is admissible in court, a federal judge ruled this week.
In a decision unsealed on Thursday, US District Court Judge Henry Morgan rejected a bid to suppress evidence against Edward Matish, one of more than 100 defendants charged in the probe of the child pornography website Playpen.
Morgan's decision said that even though the FBI obtained a warrant to perform its hacking activities, a warrant wasn't required since Matish had no reasonable expectation of privacy while browsing the Internet.
The FBI took advantage of a vulnerability in the Tor browser to install malware on the computers of more than 1,000 visitors of the child pornography website (found on the Dark Web, only accessible using Tor). The malware helped the FBI track down those accessing the site, and it proceeded to bust as many people as it could, including Matish.
http://www.pcmag.com/news/345602/fbi-can-hack-computers-without-warrants-judge-rules
