When the FBI blindly hacked into 8,000 computers in 120 countries during a massive child pornography sting in 2015, three of those nations included Russia, China and Iran, The Daily Beast reported.
The FBI's efforts netted hundreds of arrests and the rescue of hundreds of child abuse victims around the world. However, the agency deployed a technique that hacked into the computers of users of the child porn site — called Playpen — to get their IP addresses and, ultimately, their identities.
The technique was necessary since software was used to mask the origins of the pedophiles visiting Playpen, meaning the FBI didn't know beforehand where or how many countries its hack would lead to.
In addition to the potential legal problems for the FBI in this country, it could also lead to countries — especially ones that are adversarial, like Iran — using the same technique on the U.S. but without the standards.
"The true risk is how the FBI's procedures and communications about their use of malware creates international norms that are adopted by countries where rule of law is weak," cybersecurity researcher Collin Anderson told The Daily Beast.
"Without the articulation of specific norms on when, how, and who law-enforcement actors should be permitted to hack, cross-border cyberoperations that are attributed to U.S. law enforcement may send unintended signals to other states," Ahmed Ghappour, an associate professor at Boston University School of Law, told The Daily Beast.
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