Interesting news from cNet. Feds were allowed to pass spyware through a third-party service (in violation of MySpace rules).

     FBI remotely installs spyware to trace bomb threat | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
The FBI used a novel type of remotely installed spyware last month to investigate who was e-mailing bomb threats to a high school near Olympia, Wash.

Federal agents obtained a court order on June 12 to send spyware called CIPAV to a MySpace account suspected of being used by the bomb threat hoaxster. Once implanted, the software was designed to report back to the FBI with the Internet Protocol address of the suspect’s computer, other information found on the PC and, notably, an ongoing log of the user’s outbound connections.

What is curious is that the FBI just didn’t get a subpeona for the user’s records from MySpace. Why a malicious tool was used when the courts already provide a means for acquiring data and information.