Some reporters covering the so-called Homeless Hacker, Adrian Lamo, could be facing FBI inquiries in the near future – with "some" said to mean any and every reporter who has ever interviewed the 22-year-old Californian who surrendered earlier this month and was charged with multiple computer crime, including breaking into the New York Times network.
"All reporters who spoke with Lamo" should expect to hear from the FBI, said the bureau's Cybercrime Task Force New York spokeswoman Christine Howard – to Wired, one of whose own reporters got such a call. The FBI wants the Justice Department to subpoena journalist records over Lamo.
The FBI says the root of this effort is that Lamo's involvement with some reporters is a critical part of the criminal case against him, Wired said. Howard told the magazine, for example, that she learned about Lamo's hit on the Times from an article that appeared in SecurityFocus.com, an Internet news site – writer by a "legendary former hacker," Kevin Poulsen, who contacted the Times on Lamo's behalf.
"Conversations between journalists and their sources aren't 'privileged' – cloaked in confidentiality – to the same extent that, say, talks between a lawyer and his client are," said Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain to Wired, emphasizing a balance of factors had to be considered. The Justice Department says they only authorize reporters' notes subpoenas if the information in question is vital to a successful investigation or
