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
Part of the blowback from the FBI’s political actions of the past few years, is that they have no credibility whatsoever on any subject.
Yup. Thomas Jefferson was an enthusiast of cryptography. This is an issue he would have personally understood. Wrote a couple of variations of the Caesar Cypher himself, and if I recall correctly, developed a hardware crypto tool as well.
Uh, no. An individual is not required to assist in a search of their own papers. They can have my phone. I'll buy a new one. Good luck cracking the code.
Dear FBI Director Wray ....... go to hell.
Cordially yours, Squantos.
Actually, the courts can order the production of documents, evidence, etc., how ever the required demanded items are stored or are placed: under lock and key, in a safe, encrypted, hidden away, etc. If the custodian of those documents, even the person who owns them, who has been presented with the search warrant, refuses to provide them, i.e. unlock the storage, if it is within his power to do so, the courts can lock him up until he complies with the court's order, under contempt of court laws.
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