A Comprehensive Overview of Government Hacking Worldwide

Abstract

There has been an ongoing and heated public policy debate on the appropriate role of and limitations to government hacking in maintaining a proper balance of national security and privacy. Asserting that they are compelled to use government hacking tools to protect their countries and populations, law enforcement and government agencies are increasingly strident in expressing the importance of accessing and intercepting encrypted communication data. However, many non-governmental and civil society organizations and activists strongly oppose government hacking because they consider its methods and techniques are extremely invasive and potentially compromising to the fundamental right of privacy. They are also concerned that the implementation of hacking techniques or similar methods would weaken encryption standards and place the security of the Internet at risk. This paper presents an overview of the current status of government hacking and discusses challenges to lawful interception (LI) technology and rules. The current state of LI and government hacking in five countries is reviewed, and capability is assessed in terms of several widely publicized events, in an effort to analyze the limitations of current solutions. Finally, the open challenges to and future direction of government hacking are highlighted.