Mozilla and Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society recently hosted the first in a series of discussion events about government hacking. From the San Bernardino case, in which the FBI exploited a security flaw to break into an iPhone, to the Shadow Broker’s leaks involving the public disclosure of NSA hacking tools, government hacking is now constantly in the news. This activity raises a host of challenging questions that our event series is dedicated to tackling.

The first event focused on proposed changes to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41, which will allegedly expand law enforcement’s authority to hack its targets. You can find excerpts of that event below. This event was a wonkfest, so if you want all the details and are prepared to get deep into the weeds, watch the full video here.

Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. One unique element of this discussion series is that we are pulling together many of the industry, government, and civil society players who share that responsibility. And we have done so, consistent with Mozilla’s commitment to transparency, in an open forum, so everybody can benefit from the expertise on display.



Our next event on November 16th will focus on the process the government uses to determine if and when it should exploit security vulnerabilities to hack its target or disclosure those vulnerabilities to make everybody safer. We’ve assembled an all star panel for this topic. Check out the events page for more detail and to RSVP. If you can’t make it, we’ll share another blog post and video recap here.

Joseph Hall, CDT’s Chief Technology Officer, on online vs offline searches:

FBI Deputy General Counsel Greg Browser provides an overview of the issue:

Richard Salgado, Google’s Director for information security and law enforcement, on reciprocity:

Jennifer Granick, CIS Director of Civil Liberties, summarizing points of agreement: