Plus, more news bytes of the week, including a no-click iPhone hack and a stronger Android messenger app
A 34-year-old hacking law called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) sits at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing where the defense insists the law was too vaguely written. Nathan van Buren, a former Georgia police officer, is on trial for allegedly accepting payment to search for a license plate in the police database, which violates the CFAA.
Van Buren’s attorney argued to the Supreme Court that the law’s wording is so broad that it construes many innocuous actions as illegal, such as using a work Zoom account for personal reasons, using a work device to check social media, and lying about one’s height on a dating website. According to CNET, security researchers whose job it is to scan the internet for vulnerabilities would also be in violation of the CFAA, as would many other everyday activities in 2020. “In this case, and probably in most cases related to technology, it is important to review and update the laws,” commented Avast Security Evangelist Luis Corrons. “Nobody in 1986 knew how computers and our relationship with them would evolve over the next 30 years.” The Supreme Court has until June 2021 to issue a ruling on the case.
Researcher devises no-click iPhone hack
A white hat hacker from Google’s Project Zero stunned the IT world earlier this week when he published a blog post detailing an exploit that would allow hackers to gain remote access to an enti ..
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