Major tech companies regularly help law enforcement agencies to the best of their abilities but working with the government to create new exploits to track down a user isn’t something we normally see. Reported by Motherboard, here’s how and why Facebook “took the extraordinary steps” to create a zero-day exploit to help the FBI catch a child predator.
Note: contains some violent details
Considering the extent of the horrific acts of Buster Hernandez and how difficult he was to track down, Facebook made the decision to help hack this FBI target.
While it is great to see a criminal like this convicted, Motherboard notes how the situation “raises difficult ethical questions about when—if ever—it is appropriate for private companies to assist in the hacking of their users.”
Facebook commented on the case to Motherboard, explaining why it took the steps it did:
And here’s how one former Facebook employee sees the company helping the FBI in this case as different from creating a backdoor into the platform.
Even so, there was said to be a rift between Facebook employees on the matter.
You can read the full report from Motherboard here.
