All posts tagged: wiretap

US Lawmakers Move to Kill the FBI’s Warrantless Wiretap Access

US Lawmakers Move to Kill the FBI’s Warrantless Wiretap Access

A bipartisan privacy coalition in the United States Congress introduced legislation on Thursday that would impose a strict warrant requirement on the FBI’s backdoor searches of Americans’ communications, aligning federal law with a 2025 federal court ruling that found the warrantless practice unconstitutional. The bill, the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2026, repeals controversial expansions of the government’s warrantless wiretapping authority while overhauling key aspects of federal surveillance law—setting up a showdown with the US intelligence community and its congressional allies weeks before a sweeping global spy program sunsets on April 20. Senators Ron Wyden and Mike Lee are leading the legislative push alongside Representatives Warren Davidson and Zoe Lofgren. The measure carries endorsements from civil liberties organizations across the political spectrum. The legislation arrives in a surveillance landscape fundamentally altered since 2024, when Congress last renewed the wiretap program, authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The bill’s sponsors framed the Government Surveillance Reform Act as a necessary corrective to a surveillance state that has been supercharged by modern technology …

FBI investigating hack on its wiretap and surveillance systems: Report

FBI investigating hack on its wiretap and surveillance systems: Report

Hackers have reportedly broken into the networks of the FBI. On Thursday, citing an anonymous source, CNN reported that the breach affected a system used to manage wiretaps and foreign intelligence surveillance warrants.  “The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks, and we have leveraged all technical capabilities to respond,” a bureau spokesperson told TechCrunch, declining to provide more details. Contact Us Do you have more information about Paragon, and this or other spyware campaigns? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or email. This is the latest major breach of U.S. government agencies and American companies in recent times. Last year, Chinese hackers broke into the U.S. Treasury and the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the security of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. All the while, Russian hackers stole sealed records from the U.S. Courts’ filing system. Also, Elon Musk’s DOGE took control of Americans’ personal data, defying long-standing security practices and violating federal protocols, despite …