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FBI Director Wray calls inability to access electronic devices an ‘urgent public safety issue’
MacDailyNews ^ | January 9, 2018

Posted on 01/09/2018 2:21:44 PM PST by Swordmaker

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is increasingly unable to access data from some electronic devices that could help in prosecuting criminals and terrorists, which is an ‘“urgent public safety issue,’ said Christopher Wray, director of the agency, speaking at a cybersecurity conference here Tuesday,” Sara Castellanos reports for The Wall Street Journal. “In fiscal year 2017, the FBI was unable to access the content of 7,775 devices tied to defendants and victims in criminal cases, Mr. Wray said in a speech at the International Conference on Cybersecurity. That number represents more than half of all the devices tied to criminal cases that the FBI attempted to access during that year, he said.”

“He implored technology companies to help law enforcement agencies prosecute criminals by ensuring that there are ways to access secure information on electronic devices with a court order,” Castellanos reports. ” Executives of technology companies including Apple Inc. have argued against what they call ‘backdoors’ for law enforcement, which the companies say create security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and threaten the privacy of customers. ‘We’re not looking for a backdoor, which I understand to mean some kind of secret or insecure means of access,’ Mr. Wray said at the conference, hosted by the FBI and Fordham University. ‘What we’re looking for and asking for is the ability to access the device once we’ve had a warrant from an independent judge who has confirmed there is probable cause.'”

MacDailyNews Take: In other words, a backdoor.

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: For the umpteenth time: Encryption is either on or off. This is a binary issue. There is no in-between. You either have encryption or you do not.

There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, December 2015

This is not about this phone. This is about the future. And so I do see it as a precedent that should not be done in this country or in any country. This is about civil liberties and is about people’s abilities to protect themselves. If we take encryption away… the only people that would be affected are the good people, not the bad people. Apple doesn’t own encryption. Encryption is readily available in every country in the world, as a matter of fact, the U.S. government sponsors and funs encryption in many cases. And so, if we limit it in some way, the people that we’ll hurt are the good people, not the bad people; they will find it anyway. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, February 2016



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: applepinglist; cellphones; electronicdevices; fbi; nationalsecurity; privacy; security; wray
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To: Swordmaker
“He implored technology companies to help law enforcement agencies prosecute criminals by ensuring that there are ways to access secure information on electronic devices with a court order,”

How about "Pound sand, you totalitarian creep!"

41 posted on 01/09/2018 2:55:54 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: RFEngineer

Did those 7,000 devices include Hillary bathroom server? The FBI really screwed that one up too. Time to EPA the FBI.


42 posted on 01/09/2018 2:56:13 PM PST by Kozy (new age haruspex; "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.")
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To: RFEngineer

Is there a way to design software that would ‘search for and find’ these ‘flaws’, or some other way to ‘defeat’ this if it’s intentional?


43 posted on 01/09/2018 2:58:05 PM PST by neverevergiveup
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To: Swordmaker

Screw you McButtboy


44 posted on 01/09/2018 3:00:01 PM PST by mylife ( The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: Mariner
NSA does.

Uh, no, they do not.

45 posted on 01/09/2018 3:02:20 PM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you racist, bigot!)
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To: Swordmaker

The bottom line is that the FBI, blinded by treasonous agendas and political correctness don’t efficiently use the information they already possess on political corruption and islamic terrorism.

So they don’t need or deserve more.

They need to worry about their deep violations of the public trust first.


46 posted on 01/09/2018 3:02:59 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: jospehm20

Help them out! They cant crack the code!


47 posted on 01/09/2018 3:04:20 PM PST by mylife ( The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: BenLurkin

“Probably should let him put cameras in every room of our homes. We’d all be safer then.“

Why hasn’t this been a problem during the past 175 years of scientific police work?

Joe Stalin and his buddy Beria would have loved these times. Not only do your victims buy the spy equipment for you, they maintain it!


48 posted on 01/09/2018 3:07:01 PM PST by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day")
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To: Thibodeaux

Abuse my trust, you lose my trust.

The only fool in this conversation is the FBI. No one turned in the cabal, no one resigned in protest. They are all accountable.

But you can trust them if you want to, it’s still a relatively free country.


49 posted on 01/09/2018 3:08:50 PM PST by chris37 (Take a week off racist >;-)
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To: The Antiyuppie

‘What we’re looking for and asking for is the ability to access the device once we’ve had a warrant from an independent judge who has confirmed there is probable cause.’”

Going back 175 years you would have to get a warrant to unlock a file cabinet and read secure papers. Pretty much the same thing.


50 posted on 01/09/2018 3:10:18 PM PST by CJ Wolf (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World)
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To: oldbrowser

“I’m starting think there should be a stiffer penalty for misusing the authority granted to them by the people.
Golden parachutes don’t seem to scare them. “

How about the death penalty? Won’t matter, the already severe penalties are completely unenforced.


51 posted on 01/09/2018 3:10:43 PM PST by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day")
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To: Cold Heart
“...put cameras in every room of our homes”. No problem. People are doing it voluntarily via “smart homes”

One of my daughters bought me a spy camera as part of my Christmas present; she knows I like tinkering with gadgets. Tiny little device that has its own wi-fi circuitry and powerful battery that can be linked to from anywhere displaying HD video and sound. I was shocked at how I could access it remotely from my iPhone anywhere. I don't doubt that similar devices are everywhere without people knowing it.

52 posted on 01/09/2018 3:11:00 PM PST by roadcat
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To: CJ Wolf

FISA hasn’t been around 175 years.


53 posted on 01/09/2018 3:12:17 PM PST by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Wisdom and education are different things. Don't confuse them.)
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To: Swordmaker

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation is increasingly unable to access data from some electronic devices “

Like what...their own cellphones? How about bringing in some teenagers to figure it out.


54 posted on 01/09/2018 3:13:48 PM PST by Bonemaker
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To: CJ Wolf

‘What we’re looking for and asking for is the ability to access the device once we’ve had a warrant from an independent judge who has confirmed there is probable cause.’”

Going back 175 years you would have to get a warrant to unlock a file cabinet and read secure papers. Pretty much the same thing.

NO, it’s not. If I coded that document in that file the government could not force me under penalty of fine and jail to decrypt it.


55 posted on 01/09/2018 3:15:24 PM PST by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day")
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To: neverevergiveup

If you could dump the microcode, you might be able to do it. You aren’t supposed to be able to do that remotely.

The answer is “probably not” to your question. Microcode is a different animal than software. It presupposes knowledge of specific hardware elements that reside on a specific chip, even different versions of the same chip. It is very low-level stuff. It’s not like you can run an “antivirus” on it. You have to actually know and understand the hardware - and these days fewer and fewer people actually can do that.


56 posted on 01/09/2018 3:16:05 PM PST by RFEngineer
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To: Mark17; MNDude
Inability to read our minds is a pretty serious problem also.

Their working on it. And I don’t think it is that far off.

57 posted on 01/09/2018 3:16:37 PM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: Swordmaker

Dear Director Wray....

A bigger problem is the public’s perception of TRUTH when it comes to any story involving the FBI.

The FBI seems to have become the new Stasi, IMHO.


58 posted on 01/09/2018 3:18:05 PM PST by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: Mariner

“I am absolutely opposed to Law Enforcement access to smart phones without a Warrant.”

Or access to anything else for that matter.


59 posted on 01/09/2018 3:18:57 PM PST by Bonemaker
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To: Mariner

It the manufacturers were smart, they’d simply write the warrant into the EULA.


60 posted on 01/09/2018 3:20:07 PM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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