Fieman argues that some people might have gone to the site seeking to express fantasies that, while repugnant, are legal. Michaud is arguing to have his charges dismissed on grounds that the government’s use of the tool violated the Fourth Amendment. “There never has been any warrant I’ve seen that allows searches on that scale. “It’s a lot of people,” said Colin Fieman, a public defender in Tacoma, Wash., who is representing Michaud. Out of that group, the government said it has charged 137 people. In the Playpen case, the government activated malware on a site with 215,000 members, as of last February, and obtained Internet protocol addresses of 1,300 computers. “When we obtain a warrant, it’s because we have convinced a judge that there is probable cause that we’ll be able to find evidence in a particular location,” said a senior department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the department. “It’s imperative that Congress step in to regulate exactly who and how law enforcement may hack.”īut Justice Department officials said that the government investigates crimes based on evidence of illegal activities. “As the hacking techniques become more ambitious, failure in execution can lead to large-scale privacy and civil liberties abuses at home and abroad,” said Ahmed Ghappour, a professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law. Some privacy advocates and analysts worry that in doing so, investigators may also wind up hacking and identifying the computers of law-abiding people who are seeking to remain anonymous, people who can also include political dissidents and journalists. In some cases, members of law enforcement agencies are placing malware on sites that might have thousands of users. Michaud’s is the lead case in a sweeping national investigation into child porn on what is known as the dark Web, a universe of sites that are off Google’s radar where users can operate with anonymity.Īs criminals become more savvy about using technology such as Tor to hide their tracks, investigators are turning to hacking tools to thwart them. Last July, Michaud was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography. With a second warrant, agents searched the suspect’s home and found a thumb drive that allegedly contained multiple images of children engaged in sex acts.
Pewter was unmasked last year as Jay Michaud, a 62-year-old public schools administrator in Vancouver, Wash. From there, a subpoena to Comcast yielded his real name and address. When Pewter connected, the malware exploited a flaw in his browser, forcing his computer to reveal its true Internet protocol address. The agency, with a warrant, surreptitiously placed computer code, or malware, on all computers that logged into the Playpen site. In order to uncover Pewter’s true identity and location, the FBI quietly turned to a technique more typically used by hackers.
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To reach the site, he first had to install free software called Tor, the world’s most widely used tool for giving users anonymity online. The user’s online handle was “Pewter,” and while logged on at a website called Playpen, he allegedly downloaded images of young girls being sexually molested.
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