US Wants Upper Hand In Battling High-Tech Bad Guys

coondoggie writes "The US Department of Justice this week said it was looking to boost the research and development of technology that could significantly bolster new forensic tools for digital evidence gathering. The DoJ's research and development arm, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) said it was particularly interested in tools targeting forensics for mobile cellular devices; cloud computing environments; VoIP communication and vehicle computer systems."

Comments

Re:Domestic Spying

[TheGratefulNet]

These secret police are the "bad guys".

this is not a new idea but its an interesting one. who do you have more to fear from: the government who can ruin your life or 'organized crime' who might ruin your 'day' but then leave you alone (and certainly not keep records on you) ?

I don't worry about regular criminals. I do worry more about the criminal (and secret) behavior of my own government. THEY come back to fark with you again and again if they so please. their power is totally unchecked.

americans should NOT live in fear for their own government, yet that's exactly the feeling that is coming over america as of late. very sad that we didn't see this coming (or didn't do anything to stop this wave).

terrorists are not in my life; but the government is. terrorists don't affect me (I don't buy that myth) but the government policies surely affect us all.

we know who the real terrorists are. we just are now AFRAID to call it as we see it. yes, the terrorists have won, but its not the ones you were thinking of.

Re:Translation.

[hairyfeet]

After Ruby Ridge, Waco, and having a sitting president order the execution of an American citizen without even a trial? Your layout is pretty accurate looking to me. Being labeled a terrorist: it's not just for brown people anymore!

As for TFA? They can get ALL they want, they've already lost, as the encryption cat is out of the bag. I have a friend that works at the state crime lab in charge of catching kiddie pron. He keeps trying to recruit me but....eeeew! Not enough brain bleach in the world for THAT job! Anyway he says that other than the social retards on Limewire or some other P2P trading the same crap that has been floating around since the 80s it is damned near impossible to catch them strictly by digital files anymore. Why? Because the bad guys have all discovered 2048 bit crypto, that's why.

So I'd say with mobile devices getting more powerful every day it isn't "the bad guys" that have to worry about this, it is the average Joe. They are the ones that'll be running around with unlocked devices or still using the default password, whereas the bad guys will have everything locked up. Of course that brings me to my second worry, that the US Gov (or the Chinese, can't leave them out either) will simply have back doors installed in the chips. Then you think you are actually securing your data but in actuality they could input one master password and voila! all your security belong to us.

Hell this discussion is probably moot anyway, as working with average folks all day I can say you want to know everything about them just ask FaceBook. Not only is everyone gladly spewing every detail of their lives to them, but using NoScript I've noticed lately FB is hooking into more and more and MORE sites, at a rate that makes Google look like a Mickey Mouse operation. Want to know everything about somebody? Just ask FB.