Powerful Hacking Tool view source
Even the FBI agent quoted in the article got it wrong, stating “allowed open source tools to be used to query data that should not be public.” - as if proprietary browsers don't provide a View Source feature, only "evil" open source tools. Maybe I'm reading too much into it and it's a minor mistake but given the context even a potentially innocuous statement like that rubs me the wrong way for being incorrect.
As anyone could probably guess, LEOs that do actual technical work are rarely the same ones talking to the public about that technical work. Thus what gets said to or published for the public is rarely reflective of the actual internal understanding.
he had every opportunity to pump the brakes on this investigation but decided doubling down on a journalist had a better payoff, and a more prominent ability to cast him as a white knight protecting the state of Missouri against fiendish hackers.
the 'view source' prosecution strategy is certainly something id hope to keep out of the spotlight as long as possible as its chum in the water for technologists and privacy groups. the EFF could easily eviscerate it in court, as could the FSF and god help you if a cyber security firm takes interest. although most computer privacy laws in the US are written with a fire hose to catch anything remotely pertaining to an integrated circuit, these laws all generally restrict themselves to the domain of interstate commerce, healthcare, and energy.
Parsons fight is against an established journalist using an established and well respected process to report an information security exploit...so its really tough to see if or how a competent prosecution hopes to land any charges outside the governors "Lol do it anyway" edict which, fwiw, feels eerily similar to the malarkey Aaron Schwartz was put through.