U.K. Police Can Compromise Computer Systems without a Warrant

The U.K. Home Office has adopted plans to allow investigators to remotely search computers without a court order. The reports to date do not discuss the legal issues of using these techniques outside of the U.K.:

"Even though remote searching has existed in Britain since the '90s, when it was introduced as an amendment to the Computer Misuse Act, it has rarely been used until now and has been strictly controlled under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. According to the new proposal, police forces or MI5 agents will be able to conduct such intrusive surveillance based merely on the decision of a senior officer that it is “proportionate” and necessary to the investigation of an offense that is punishable with a minimum sentence of three years in jail.

"In order to conduct the remote searching, the police will be able to act much like the cyber-criminals do, by developing malicious code, distributing the spyware via e-mail attachments, installing keylogging software or intercepting WLAN traffic. "

British Police Can Hack Computers Without Requiring Court-Issued Warrants