FBI bypasses First Amendment to nail a hacker

[Walt Starr]

By Mark Rasch, SecurityFocus
Posted: 29/09/2003 at 16:35 GMT

Citing a provision of the Patriot Act, the FBI is sending letters to journalists telling them to secretly prepare to turn over their notes, e-mails and sources to the bureau. Should we throw out the First Amendment to nail a hacker, writes SecurityFocus columnist Mark Rasch.

Frequent readers of this space know that I am no apologist for hackers like Adrian Lamo, who, in the guise of protection, access others' computer systems without authorization, and then publicize these vulnerabilities.

Link to Story at The Register

[Another Bill C.]

1. How about Novak

Can't the same provisions of the Patriot Act be used to go after Novak and find out who his high-level White House source is?

[Walt Starr]

3. But Novak is not an evil hacker

All Novak did was out a long-time veteran of the WMD investigative team for the CIA putting 300 million American lives at risk of being attacked by terrorist WMDs.

It's not like he embarassed some Fortune 500 company by exposing how vulnerable their computer systems are or anything like that.

edited to add Oh, I see you're making the case for using the Patriot Act in something even remotely resembling protecting America against terrorism. It's not like Johnny promised the PA wouldn't be used for anything besides terrorism investigations.

<takes tongue out of cheek>

[hang a left]

2. The Patriot Act should not be used here or anywhere.

[WhereIsMyFreedom]

4. I disagree, the Patriot Act should be used to

wipe my ass the next time I take a dump.