FBI director calls for restart of smartphone encryption debate
Mike Wuerthele
FBI Director James Comey appears ready to relaunch the debate about encryption legislation with tech companies before "something terrible happens," and alters the course of the discussion.
Speaking before the International Conference on Cyber Security in New York City last week, Comey says that governmental discussions will have to wait until the 2017 inauguration of a new president. "At some point encryption is going to figure into a major event in this country," Comey claimed. "We've got to have this conversation before that happens, because after that, the time for thoughtful reflection will be significantly reduced."
Comey said at the conference that he would have rather had the encryption debate with tech companies behind closed doors. However, also noted that he did understand why Apple chose litigation as a venue to start the conversation.
Of the 4,000 cellphones seized as potential evidence in the first six months of 2016, the FBI has been unable to break into 500 of them.
"Nobody has the high ground. Nobody is the Devil," Comey said, repeating a previous statement. "In this conversation, we all share the same values."
While cellphone whole-device encryption has been a problem for law enforcement since implementation, the debate took center-stage in the beginning of 2016. Investigators found a county-owned iPhone in the belongings following the December San Bernardino shootings, and were initially unable to penetrate the device. The FBI requested Apple assistance in unlocking the phone, and the judge attempted to compel Apple to do so.
In the midst of the encryption battle and hours before a schedule court hearing, the FBI found an alternate way to penetrate the iPhone. The hack cost the agency more than $1.34 million, according to Comey. No useful data was found.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Marko Zivkovic
David Schloss
Wesley Hilliard
Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen
65 Comments
"Nobody has the high ground. Nobody is the Devil," Comey said, repeating a previous statement. "In this conversation, we all share the same values." No, we don't.
Screw that guy, letting the #1 criminal go scot free.
My trust in the FBI is approximately 0%.
And something terrible is no doubt going to happen sooner rather than later, and I do not give a crap if the FBI can not hack into any phones. Something terrible happens approximately every 86 hours in Europe, sucks to be them I guess. B)
I am currently supporting Russian hackers, Chinese hackers and hackers all over the world and wikileaks too to do what the FBI refused to do, bring justice! Let's see those emails! They're coming soon! It's going to be awesome! I can't wait! :#
I just don't understand the logic of this discussion.
Assuming 100% of all smart phones had zero encryption, there would always be many third party applications that encrypt messages on the fly. Many of them are free and quite effective. Most such developers are not subject to American law. I see no way to stop them. So why burden iOS or Android with laws designed to weaken encryption? Such restrictions the FBI and other authorities want defy logic.
What am I missing?
But, all that really matters, anyway - is what their INTENTIONS were, right? I mean, if the Government tramples over the US Constitution, everyone's freedoms our privacy and all of our rights - that's fine. Just as long as they didn't INTEND to violate our rights, then things are just honkey-dory.
That seems to be the level of logic this man is capable of digesting, whether you violate laws is really inconsequential; it's what the intentions were that really matter. And he, alone is the arbitrator of what you really intended to do. I guess he is not only the Director of the FBI, he is also a world class mind reader and armature time traveler.,