James Comey: the Man Who Wants To Outlaw Encryption

Patrick O'Neill writes: "There has not been a tradeoff between liberty and security in our response to terrorism in this country and in our efforts to offer security to the people of the United States," said James Comey, now the director of the FBI. Comey was the number two man in the Department of Justice during the Bush years when NSA and law enforcement surveillance of Americans grew to unprecedented heights. Now he's pushing to stop encryption by default on Apple and Android devices.

Comments

Seriously...?

[Nostromo21]

And this guy is the director of the FBI...for real? :-/

Re:Seriously...?

[Anonymous Coward]

When it's your job to catch bad guys, everyone starts looking like a bad guy. And then after a while you think that only bad guys use encryption, because good people don't have anything to hide. Soon you think it's okay to read everyone's personal communications without a warrant "for the greater good."

He probably also thinks the evil bit is an excellent idea.

Re:Seriously...?

[davester666]

Everyone's broken some law. He's just going through the list of people in the US.

But it's hard to go out and investigate, come up with leads, run them down. Instead, you just have all the major ISPs [wired and wireless] track who is using encrypted communications, and report to you their name, address and current physical location. Then you make up a reason to search through their home, financial records and internet history [thanks for the data, NSA], and you'll find something.

Re:Seriously...?

[mark-t]

Good people have plenty to hide.... primarily from bad people, mind you, but plenty to to hide nonetheless.

Re:Seriously...?

[Anonymous Coward]

And some of those bad people work for the government. What's very disturbing to me is the NSA, CIA, and FBI are now shopping their services around to every podunk police department and also largish corporations. With what appears to be no vetting or tracking how the information is used. Nothing but systematic abuse will come out of this.

Re:Seriously...?

[monkeyzoo]

A good passage...

“The FBI makes this proposal to look like they’re looking for a simple law to add a simple feature,” says Robert Graham, CEO at Errata Security. “But when you look into it, what they’re really asking for is dramatic, it’s a huge thing. They’d need to outlaw certain kinds of code. Possessing crypto code would become illegal.”

Ask hackers and other cybersecurity experts, and they'll tell you that the entire idea of a “backdoor” is a bureaucratic fantasy with little basis in technical reality.

“You can't build a backdoor that only the good guys can walk through,” cryptographer and author Bruce Schneier explained. “Encryption protects against cybercriminals, industrial competitors, the Chinese secret police, and the FBI. You're either vulnerable to eavesdropping by any of them, or you're secure from eavesdropping from all of them.”

Re:Seriously...?

[Gr8Apes]

The two shooters in Texas were "on the FBI's radar" yet they managed to drive all the way to Texas and attempt to carry-out their plot. I guess the FBI will claim they needed more massive surveillance to prevent this incident. Bastard liars all.

What's even better is one of those was a previously convicted terrorist, been jailed and released, and was actively tweeting/posting on *public* social media his intentions, and still "they managed to drive all the way to Texas and attempt to carry-out their plot." Exactly what in excess of what the FBI/NSA/CIA had do they need to "prevent terrorism"? I'd say this points out to the complete and utter uselessness of the entire concept of mass surveillance to prevent terrorism, so let's start there with dismantling this democracy killing concept.

Re:Seriously...?

[Jason Levine]

A "backdoor" isn't a fantasy. The quote was "“You can't build a backdoor that only the good guys can walk through,” The key words are "only the good guys." Say I make an incredible encryption tool but build in a backdoor for the FBI to use. (Arguably, this makes the encryption tool no longer "incredible", but just accept it for now.) The theory is that only the FBI uses this backdoor while the hackers try in vain to break into the front door. The reality, though, is that - after trying the front door - the hackers will examine the encryption and will discover the open back door. Then, it's just a matter of time before they figure out how to get into it.

You can make a backdoor to any program. What you can't do is keep "bad guys" from entering that back door while allowing "good guys" in. If a backdoor exists, the bad guys WILL find it and WILL exploit it. It's just a matter of time.

Re:Seriously...?

[Xyrus]

I have an idea. How about instead of wiping his ass with the Constitution, burning it, then shitting on the ashes for good measure, maybe this Stalinist assclown could try to protect us from some real threats to the American people.

Terrorism? Fucking idiot. Terrorism isn't a threat. Heart disease is a threat. Obesity and complications related to obesity are a threat. Car accidents are a threat. Cancer is a threat.

In fact, just about everything in life is more of a threat to the average American than terrorism, from accidentally dropping an electrical appliance in the tub while you're in it to falling down the fucking stairs. Even getting struck by lightning is more of a fucking threat.

Terrorism? This guy needs to get some fucking perspective.Terrorism is an excuse. It's a cash cow. It's a blunt object to club over the collective head of the populace. The fear of terrorism is doing more to destroy this country than any terrorist or terrorist organization could ever hope to accomplish on their own. In fact, if terrorists really want to bring down America all they need to do is open cheap shops of deep fried donut wrapped sausages and watch us die by the millions from strokes and heart attacks. They can laugh their asses off watching us drop like flies while we chant "protect us from the terrorists!".

Sad.

Re:Seriously...?

[ATMAvatar]

I'm not sure why we keep talking about good guys and bad guys. With their invasive surveillance and contempt for our liberties, it's pretty clear that the NSA, FBI, et. al. are the "bad guys", too.

This is what the war on terror gives us.

[bejiitas_wrath]

More and more surveillance of Americans instead of the supposed enemies. This is the US after 9/11 and the Boston bombing. Welcome to 1984.

correct

[roman_mir]

Correct, there has not been a tradeoff between liberty and security in our response to terrorism in this country and in our efforts to offer security to the people of the United States. What there has been is a complete and utter disregard for liberty and destruction of individual rights. Forget tradeoffs, the Constitution was abolished, that is what happened.

Liberty?

[Etherwalk]

False, although mostly true so far. Notably, the intrusiveness of airport security has gone way up, for the big example on the false side.

Mostly what there's been so far has been a tradeoff between *privacy* and security. As in none of the former.

I feel for the guy--his job is to prevent another 9/11. He gets the call if a city blows up. And he probably really cares about defending liberty.

But unfortunately, pervasive surveillance without amazingly well-engineered procedural oversight and security will inevitably lead to tyranny. Anyone who doesn't see that isn't stepping far enough back. He's concerned about the next five years; I'm concerned about the next twenty or fifty.

I suppose there's an AI issue, too--a singularity is going to get into this data in a few decades. I can't predict what an AI a hundred times smarter than any of us might do with it.

Re:Liberty?

[swillden]

In order to trade off some of A to get some of B, you have to actually get some of B. In this case, we've given a lot of A and gotten nothing for it.

Comey:"justice may be denied"

[Frobnicator]

From TFA: Comey said in an Oct. 2014 speech "Justice may be denied because of a locked phone or an encrypted hard drive." I can somewhat understand that from an investigator's perspective.

But my take is that lots of people are constantly attacking my devices, from the petty skript kiddies to corporations wanting secrets to the NSA who wants everything. Most of the attacks never see justice, they are never prosecuted. There is no justice in most cases, only criminals who break in.

If my devices are properly hardened in advance, I don't need to wait for the government to apply "justice".

Re:Hyperbole Much?

[epyT-R]

Yeah, but the reason he wants the default of 'no' is to make it easier to monitor communications. He doesn't give a shit about the 4th, naturally. The government shouldn't be dictating the default setting either, which is what he wants.

Keep all your doors unlocked too

[greggman]

because we might need to look in your house for terrorists. Also get rid of locks on car doors because we might want to randomly search your car

Re:Keep all your doors unlocked too

[oobayly]

Are you suggesting that chastity belts should remain unlocked?

once again

[camg188]

A law that will affect innocent citizens and dumb criminals. The criminals the FBI is after will probably be aware of it and manually turn on encryption.

Heres what I think of this guy:

[TiggertheMad]

James Comey is

BWgSZ9ZYLw5I kmoBvJiRvnO7uQU9x6NoYlKBOaO vmb3df8lNwkgeFc30rNPB9kh09Fr61CxW24IkH3YWKRe8H YdTd8YHzpRBMQJcwyxn+O3cUPQ4sP2dN4GEA/9v17IipHz12Bon8o7dc0o8UaOj3tl Pr19cq3meoufARx7PLJ0SKclb3LG7SxW+GTISS1cRGpDRr d0NvdC8lHHkfyDx5YGnIp DUgQa9lMCpQbHSln40 LCosKrQamj4Ni27wIbikaSWV+IiDsn jyfc7eLKlq QSOgCFzMsBglGzC2+j9HifrKU/z9Fzc8HZ3UiaQahMiOj EnohZdYQqCdPAmeZlEkK/qaZBtwA13A BLrbolhR0C/NSgvA hPZzh7oj33/LHPY8tC TP7zXULYP/RsccmOc aS88VzbzOAaRwEf9KCu1YtKICdVyGlYhn5IN4q vM80+vNtkc0QiRUdKW

And I'll tell him that again to his FACE!

2nd: you get guns to defend your worthless crap

[TiggertheMad]

Lol, are you drunk? Most people are not going to pick up their guns an revolt against the government unless one thing happens: The government comes into THEIR town, and tries to take THEIR house/car/money/loved ones. Nobody is going to grab an AK-47 and march on Washington because the feds are reading their e-mail to grandma.

And the feds probably know it too, or else they wouldn't be doing it....

America is gradually turning into China

[Taco Cowboy]

In order to trade off some of A to get some of B, you have to actually get some of B. In this case, we've given a lot of A and gotten nothing for it

I have read many comments here and what you have said is so very true I just need to add to what you have written

I came from China

I left China back in the early 1970's, way back when the entire Chinese society was in a turmoil, where nobody can live in peace because the social contract between the government and the people had broken down

A political struggle at the top echelon resulted in a power-struggle at every level, and power grab was everywhere ... the so-called 'Red Guard' was a by-product of power-grabbing exercises, mostly at the local level

Anyway, people at large in China had no say --- they kept on losing their liberty, their livelihood, even their lives, --- with some driven into madness and many simply committed suicide since they couldn't take it anymore

To put it in simple terms, to the average Chinese citizens, what they had gone through in between the late 1950's and the early 1970's was that everything they had was taken away, just like that ... yep, without any tradeoff

Now that I am an American, I am alarmed at the current development within the United States of America

The people in the USA will be facing the same thing the people in China faced, if nothing is being done to stop TPTB

What happened back in China was that there was no one who could stop Mao. Zhou En Lai tried his best to slow Mao's incessant hunger for power but he just couldn't muster enough strength to halt Mao in his track. All Zhou could do was to do patchworks here and there

Even Zhou suffered greatly during the social turmoil. His own daughter was brutally slaughtered by Jiang Qin, that feisty wife of Mao, and even with his own daughter slaughtered, Zhou couldn't do anything

The experience from China should be a lesson to the Americans ... that is, even if you have someone who has conscience INSIDE the power structure, it is still NOT ENOUGH when TPTB turns ugly

And if the Americans don't do something now --- frankly, even now, it may be too late --- they and their children will eventually be facing a similar fate the Chinese faced some 50 years ago

I certainly don't wish that to America, my adopted country, but I am afraid that too many of the Americans are way too brainwashed to be able to comprehend what is going on and what is going to come

Re:Where were gun nuts during Occupy?

[Lunix Nutcase]

It wasn't for unpaid taxes. He was grazing on public lands and then refused to pay the grazing fees. He was basically being a mooch and the right only jumped to his defense because they could make up this story about he was a victim of government overreach.