Opinion: US police hacking case should raise all of our concerns about cybersecurity

As we’ve seen, unfettered access to hacking tools has already proved too tempting a tool for corrupt police officers. — Coding photo created by DCStudio - www.freepik.com

On June 21, 2022, the US Department of Justice announced a man pled guilty to, while employed as a Louisville, KY police officer, hacking multiple women’s computers and devices, downloading their compromising photos, and then texting these women to demand more photos or else the officer would publicly expose the photos he illegally seized. This should be, in my view, the biggest news so far this summer.

First, this case makes it clear what some of us following cybersecurity have known for ages: that police are hacking civilian devices without warrants. Second, there are zero safeguards in place to prevent abuses of this technology or to ensure judicial oversight of invasive internet searches at police departments.