DOJ Seeks Broader Search Warrant Authority to Combat Botnets

That's the report from Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post.  According to her: "The Justice Department is seeking a change in criminal rules that would make it easier for the FBI to obtain warrants to hack into suspects’ computers for evidence when the computer’s physical location is unknown — a problem that officials say is increasing as more and more crime is conducted online with tools to conceal identity." I'd be interested in Orin Kerr's thoughts on this, but since he is on the committee that is redrafting the rules and responsible for responding to the DOJ request (a copy of which is here) I suspect he might not be able to blog the issue.  It would seem to me that the territorial requirements of current search warrant law don't match up to the non-territorial nature of the network.  To the extent we accommodate that reality while maintaining judicial control of the process, these types of changes seem sensible to me.