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FBI director warns Apple, Google away from encrypting devices
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MacNN Staff
Join Date: Jul 2012
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The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked for companies to back away from encrypting consumer devices by default. Echoing similar comments made last month, Director James Comey spoke to the Brookings Institute yesterday about the issue, which is claimed will make it difficult for law enforcement officials to collect evidence from mobile devices.
"The FBI has a sworn duty to try and keep every American safe from crime and from terrorism, and technology has become the tool of choice for some very dangerous people," states Comey. "Unfortunately, the law has not kept pace with technology, and this disconnect has created a significant safety problem we have long described as Going Dark." The inability of law enforcement to access the evidence required for a conviction, even with the legal right to do so, is the main complaint from the director. "We have the legal authority to intercept and access communications and information pursuant to court order, but we often lack the technical ability to do so."
Comey summed up the issue as two separate challenges, revolving on "Data in Motion," namely active communications collected in programs such as PRISM, and information stored on devices termed "Data at Rest." Both are "increasingly encrypted" as time moves on, making each harder to do, even with the blessing of the court. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, passed in 1994, requires broadband providers and telecommunications carriers to build connections for monitoring into their networks, but Comey claims the 20-year-old law was created a "lifetime ago" in Internet terms, and "doesn't cover at all new means of communication," including the vast number of messaging services available to users.
"If the challenges of real-time data interception threatens to leave us in the dark, encryption threatens to lead us all to a very dark place," he said. While admitting encryption is "nothing new," Comey claims it makes evidence collection attempts by law enforcement "markedly worse with recent default encryption settings and encrypted devices and networks, all in the name of increased security and privacy."
After calling out Apple and Google's recent encryption announcements, stating that the "companies themselves will not be able to unlock phones, laptops, or tablets." Comey asserts "Both companies are run by good people, who care deeply about public safety and national security, I know that, and they are responding to a market demand they perceive, but the place that this is leading us is one that I suggest we not go without careful thought and debate as a country." Comey responds to suggestion from Apple that this does not matter due to data being backed up online, claiming that it doesn't back up all the potentially-useful data, and that users can also opt out, forcing security forces to collect via the device directly.
Director Comey's comments have already received criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union. Director of the Washington Legislative Office of the ACLU Laura Murphy writes that Comey "is wrong in asserting that law enforcement while respecting Americans' privacy rights. In fact, federal law explicitly protects the right of companies to add encryption with no backdoors." After noting that weakened encryption leaves personal information vulnerable to hacking, Murphy goes on to applaud tech leads "that are unwilling to weaken security for everyone to allow the government yet another tool in its already vast surveillance arsenal."
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Senior User
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: in front of my computer
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: OR, USA
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"will make it difficult for law enforcement officials to collect evidence from mobile devices."
It's SUPPOSED to be difficult to spy on American citizens. You should have to prove suspicion to get the authority to spy and it should be difficult for you to get the information. Stop whining and do the hard work. You get no sympathy from me.
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Michael
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Junior Member
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I want his resignation for ignoring the laws our country was founded on!
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Moosup, CT 06354
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Make encryption a taxable item and the government will be fine with it. As long as tax tied to it anything goes.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Truckee, CA
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If the Feebs and other agencies had a history of "...intercept and access communications and information pursuant to court order" the government's position might have a tiny shred of validity.
However the entire planet knows that the USA government at all levels has for decades collected information _without_ court orders.
Today we must encrypt at the source to protect not against _legal_ court-ordered searches but against the _illegal_ law enforcement SOP of fishing for info for any reason and by any means that suits an individual LEO.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jan 2000
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What he's really saying is we should put all our trust in the government. Anyone feel confident about that?
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Princeton, NJ
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"but the place that this is leading us is one that I suggest we not go without careful thought and debate as a country."
Yes, a place where the people are free from illegal invasion of privacy and a place where people are waking up to the shameful behavior that government agencies have been able to get away with by hiding in the shadows and playing off of our fears.
We have indeed given this a great deal of thought. We suggest that you do the same.
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Senior User
Join Date: Mar 2009
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"The FBI has a sworn duty to try and keep every American safe from crime and from terrorism, and technology has become the tool of choice for some very dangerous people," states Comey.
What he seems to constantly forget is that the FBI also has a sworn duty to uphold and abide by the US constitution (all of it, not just the parts that make his job easier). To many Americans, the biggest terrorists are those three letter departments in the US government.
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2002
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"Both companies are run by good people, who care deeply about public safety and national security..."
I have to ask how many feel that way about the current governance, especially those beyond a geographic border of questionable relevance...?
Do those who care the most sometimes end up in exile...?
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Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2001
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What mister Comey seems to conveniently forget is that most civilised countries do in fact not allow this kind of invasion of one privacy by law. And since these products are sold world wide, and american law does not apply to about 96% of that world, the likes of Apple and Google are well in their rights for protecting us from the illegal overseas sniffing. From all kinds of agencies, really. I have nothing to hide, but that still doesn't mean they can just have unbridled access to all my stuff.
Of course, what he is actually saying is 'Boohoo, we spend a fortune developing a system where we can illegally hack into phones all over the world, and now you guys are making us look stupid'
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Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: London, UK
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Hoisted by his own petard. Perhaps if you and the NSA hadn't been so keen to read everything then we might not have demanded that companies start to encrypt everything. I have nothing to hide, but the fact that you have felt quite comfortable hoovering up my communications over the past few years fills me with rage. The fact that the day is coming when you'll no longer be able to tell me apart from the people you really care about is entirely your own fault.
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Junior Member
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Location: Maltby, WA.
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Law enforcement warned about "Miranda Rights" too and its negative impact on agencies to perform their 'sworn duty'. Hum . . .
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