[Infowarrior] - FBI chief: Encryption is 'urgent public safety issue'

[Richard Forno]

FBI continues hysterically tilting at windmills ref good-guys-only access to 'strong' crypto. 
   -- rick


FBI chief: Encryption is 'urgent public safety issue'

By Olivia Beavers - 01/09/18 12:12 PM EST

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/368094-fbi-chief-warns-impenetrable-device-encryption-poses-urgent-public

FBI Director Christopher Wray stated Tuesday that the inability of law enforcement agencies to surpass the strong encryptions on electronic devices poses an “urgent public safety issue.”

Wray said that during the last fiscal year, the FBI failed to break through the powerful protective coding of 7,775 devices, even though they had advanced tools at their disposal and the legal right to access the contents, Reuters reported. 

He said the inability to access cellphone data that is "going dark" would impact FBI investigations across the board including counterterrorism, counterintelligence, human trafficking and organized crime.

Much of Wray's speech at the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) in New York was posted on the FBI's Twitter account.

Wray, who took over as the head of the FBI in August, emphasized that the bureau's inability to overcome the obstacle of encryption is a "public safety issue." 


The FBI has long argued that law enforcement should have the ability to pry open cellphones as a way of protecting domestic security.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein have repeatedly called for tech companies to design encryption systems that still allow law enforcement access, an argument also made during the Obama administration.

This has been resisted by tech companies and privacy advocates.