The FBI is struggling to maintain its powers to spy on Americans without a warrant through it Article 702 (PDF) of SHEET.
During a US House subcommittee hearing last week on cyber threats from Beijing, the FBI's Christopher Wray told lawmakers that “Act 702 is the best tool the FBI has to combat of PRC (People's Republic of China) hacker groups.
Wray cited an example he has used in the past of how, last year, Section 702 of America's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allowed the FBI to discover Chinese government spies trying to break into an unnamed US transportation hub.
"We were able to quickly alert the entity and share technical details, which allowed them to kick the Chinese out of their networks before damage was done," Wray told the House China Competition Committee hearing.
Section 702 is a controversial amendment to FISA that allows US intelligence agencies to spy on foreign intelligence agencies. In fact, the private communications of certain U.S. persons. they can be scanned without a warrant and analyzed by agents, alarming privacy advocates.
Failure to reauthorize Article 702 would be a form of unilateral disarmament against the Chinese Communist Party
The amendment will expire by April 19 of this year unless Congress reauthorizes it. Lawmakers have the ability to amend the terms so that, for example, warrants are required in some cases or some other protections are put in place. The feds, of course, are not happy about these changes to Section 702, saying the prosecutorial warrant requirements will slow down and hinder their investigations.
"Failure to reauthorize 702, or for that matter, reauthorizing it in a way that severely limits our ability to use it, would be a form of unilateral disarmament against the Chinese Communist PartyWray said.
"I can assure the American people that the Chinese government is not tying its hands behind its back. It goes the other way and we have to do the same."
