Use of Encryption Foiled the Cops a Record 9 Times In 2013

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 3, 2014 @08:24AM from the achievement-unlocked dept.

realized (2472730) writes "In nine cases in 2013, state police were unable to break the encryption used by criminal suspects they were investigating, according to an annual report on law enforcement eavesdropping released by the U.S. court system on Wednesday. That's more than twice as many cases as in 2012, when police said that they'd been stymied by crypto in four cases—and that was the first year they'd ever reported encryption preventing them from successfully surveilling a criminal suspect. Before then, the number stood at zero."

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They'd be stumped more often by l0ungeb0y · 2014-07-03 08:55 · Score: 4, Interesting

But so far, the only criminals using encryption are the smart ones who take precautions not to even become suspects in the first place. And just because the authorities were stymied by encryption, or that the suspects used encryption does not mean that the suspects were actually guilty of any crime. Personally, I'd much rather a few crimes go unsolved than live in an authoritarian Police State.