FBI Director Expects Legal Battle Over Encryption to Continue

[MacRumors]

In a briefing with reporters, FBI director James Comey said that he expects litigation over the encryption of mobile devices to continue, as encryption is "essential tradecraft" of terrorist organizations like ISIS, reports Reuters.

Comey indicated that the debate involving both legal and privacy issues over whether the federal government can compel tech companies to unlock personal devices in the interest of national security is far from over in a briefing with reporters at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Since October, FBI experts have examined nearly 4,000 devices and have been unable to unlock around 500, according to Comey. He thinks none of these devices are the same model as San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone 5c, which means the method the FBI used to unlock that phone would not work on these other models.

The U.S. Justice Department dropped two lawsuits against Apple in the past couple of months. The first case was an attempt to order Apple to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, but the Justice Department dropped the case when it found a contractor that could unlock the device for under $1 million. The second case was a New York drug case, which was dropped when investigators unlocked the phone in question by hand.

Comey also confirmed reports that the identity of the contractors who unlocked the iPhone 5c is a closely-guarded secret within the FBI, saying that he had a "good sense" of the identity of the third-party contractor but was not aware of its identity. Finally, the FBI director mentioned that WhatsApp's new end-to-end encryption was already "affecting the criminal work [of the FBI] in huge ways."

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: FBI Director Expects Legal Battle Over Encryption to Continue

 

[aaronvan]

Obama and his criminal ilk will continue their vile assault on the 4th Amendment unless patriotic Americans rise as one and cry "Stop!"

 

[Shirasaki]

So human is attempting to destroy the "evil" they created, like closing opened pandora magic box.
USA is a lot like China in recent years, despite the fact govt brand USA as a "free" country.
Perhaps, some rights we are fighting for does not exist from the beginning.

 

[tentales]

Confirming what we already knew before when Comey claimed it was just about this one iPhone.
They want full access across all mobile devices in realtime.

 

[rp2011]

So it seems it was true, that yes, the FBI used the dead in San Bernandino as a ploy, and use them as an excuse to take away more of our rights.

I mean, they felt that surely no one could refuse when posed against terrorismism.

...again.

It worked with the Patriot Act after all.

Kudos to Tim Cook.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

What else can we classify as "essential tradecraft" of terrorists? Writing? Speaking? Walking?

 

[rp2011]

Obama and his criminal ilk will continue their vile assault on the 4th Amendment unless patriotic Americans rise as one and cry "Stop!"

Is that what you said when Bush enacted the Patriot Act?

Bush fought for and got that. Obama never said he supported it, rather he urged the tech sector to work it out for themselves or chance having another republican president who would not be so understanding of the bigger implementations at hand.

So educate yourself before making yourself look as uninformed and easily manipulated as you do.

 

[Shirasaki]

What else can we classify as "essential tradecraft" of terrorists? Writing? Speaking? Walking?

Then better everyone other than government officers go to Colorado Cliff to just kill themselves, and voila! No threat on terrorism at all.

 

[garirry]

I said this before and I'll say this again.

Terrorists do not want to destroy buildings, they do not want to kill people, they do not want to threat the government. What they want is to have people fear them. Why do you think 9/11 happened? Look at how many people are still upset over this. Do you really think there's any kind of significant monetary damage going on because of this? Hell no, they just built something new.

When the government is making us fear terrorists, they essentially give them what they WANT. And on top of that, those wanted encryption laws are probably going to help those terrorists to create more crime. In fact, I'm sure that terrorists are smart enough to destroy devices before attacking the country. In fact, I'll guess the iPhone 5C found by the gov was just a dummy intentionally placed in order to create chaos.

This government is downright STUPID. Pathetic. They have no sense of reality and they think way too straightly.

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

I have to ask, if and if a backdoor is truly created, just how many other countries governments would want to access it as well? Is there any plan that it would be only specific to U.S government?

I reckon almost every other country would want that then in the name of 'safety' and would probably bash Apple left and right perhaps even stop sales in their respective countries until they get what they want.

 

[TrueBlou]

I wonder how any law enforcement outfit in any country managed to deal with nasty criminal types before the mobile phone came along? ouija board? Randomly asking people in the street if they knew of criminal activity? The mind boggles.

And just how stupid are these criminals if they use something like an iPhone for their criminal activity? Seriously they aren't going to be hard to find if they're stupid enough to log all of their incriminating evidence into iCloud instead of using some crappy burner that doesn't leave a trail.

Damn I'm cranky when I've had less than 2 hours sleep
[doublepost=1463021780][/doublepost]

I have to ask, if and if a backdoor is truly created, just how many other countries governments would want to access it as well? Is there any plan that it would be only specific to USA government?

I reckon almost every other country would want that then in the name of 'safety' and would probably bash Apple left and right to get what they want and even stop sales in their respective countries until they get what they want.

You're right, it wouldn't. Once a president has been set, every country out there will want the same thing and go to extremes to get it in all likelihood.

 

[AustinIllini]

Obama and his criminal ilk will continue their vile assault on the 4th Amendment unless patriotic Americans rise as one and cry "Stop!"

Trump would demand everything be unencrypted within minutes.

 

[2010mini]

Obama and his criminal ilk will continue their vile assault on the 4th Amendment unless patriotic Americans rise as one and cry "Stop!"

Yes it's ONLY Obama that is violating the 4th. This sort of thing NEVER happened under other administrations.

 

[AustinIllini]

Yes it's ONLY Obama that is violating the 4th. This sort of thing NEVER happened under other administrations.

I was under the impression the government could circumvent most of the bill of rights anyway.

 

[Shirasaki]

Damn I'm cranky when I've had less than 2 hours sleep

Damn I will die if I do this for too long.
[doublepost=1463024065][/doublepost]

I was under the impression the government could circumvent most of the bill of rights anyway.

As bills/laws are basically created by government controlled departments. And bill, with no enforcement, is just a few words written on a paper.
Law alone cannot protect us, or limit the power of government. There must be something powerful enough to enforce the law, and stand ground against anyone who dare against law, yet this "someone" may not be government.

 

[TrueBlou]

Damn I will die if I do this for too long.

Unfortunately it's all too common for me .... Well sometimes I get 3 hours

 

[oplix]

FBI expects shadow government masturbation to continue.

 

[Shirasaki]

Unfortunately it's all too common for me .... Well sometimes I get 3 hours

Ask your boss to extend your sleeping time or he will lose a great employee like you.

 

[teslo]

FBI expects ****storm they started to continued as planned.

 

[pat500000]

Not this again.

 

[B4U]

So, for perfectly law-abiding citizens that simply dislike to be tracked by the government, we are going to need to bring a handheld gaming device to work and use flip-phones from now on...?

 

[Shirasaki]

So, for perfectly law-abiding citizens that simply dislike to be tracked by the government, we are going to need to bring a handheld gaming device to work and use flip-phones from now on...?

Until they ban flip phone and any devices cannot be tracked when being designed.

Government just too eager to know what everyone else is doing, yet they just selectively ignore that huge amount of data they already have, someone says.

Terrorists have won the war. We may have won the battle but we have lost the war already.

 

[FieldingMellish]

If anyone watched HBO's The Wire, you'd understand. Part of that show dramatized the drug dealer's ever-changing means to communicate as tech evolved, causing the authorities to counteract it at each development. The first show involved beepers and phone booths.

 

[TrueBlou]

Ask your boss to extend your sleeping time or he will lose a great employee like you.

I am my boss, but we do have regular arguments

 

[Shirasaki]

I am my boss, but we do have regular arguments

Ugh, too bad. Good luck if you have a chance to take a good rest.