2016 a 'Big Year' in Government Hacking, Says EFF in Review
From the FBI's legal fight with Apple to allegations of Russian interference into the U.S. election, 2016 was a "big year for government hacking," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a blog post this week. The Obama administration blamed the…
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Russian government for a series of hacks of U.S. political institutions, though it's unclear if those hacks changed the outcome of the presidential election, said EFF. "But paranoia about Russian hacking has successfully sown confusion all over the world" with the U.S. reviewing foreign-based attacks seeking to disrupt the elections, and European governments "reportedly bracing for Russian interference in next year's elections in France, Germany, and the Netherlands," the Monday post said. EFF also said certain types of Chinese government hacking may be declining, possibly due to a 2015 U.S.-China agreement not to support cyber-enabled intellectual property theft. The post also noted the FBI's court fight to force Apple to unlock an iPhone used in the 2015 San Bernardino, California, shooting (see 1603290059) and changes to the Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that allow the FBI to get a warrant from any jurisdiction regardless of where a device may be located (see 1611220013).