Experts are speculating that the FBI may be closely guarding a secret vulnerability in the Firefox browser that it can exploit for future law enforcement purposes, according to a Motherboard report yesterday.The article refers to a network investigative technique that the FBI used to hack visitors of the Playpen child pornography website. That site runs on the encrypted Tor network, but an exploit that works on the Tor browser would also work just as effectively on Firefox, upon which Tor was built.So far the U.S. Department of Justice has resisted a U.S. district court order to disclose the technique. In an interview with Motherboard, Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said that by not disclosing the alleged vulnerability in such a popular global browser, “The government is essentially choosing to keep hundreds of millions of people vulnerable in case a few of them turn out to be criminals later.”
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Report: Feds staying mum on possible Firefox vulnerability
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Bradley Barth
As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.
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