FBI Tells Congress It Needs Hackers To Keep Up With Tech Company Encryption (buzzfeed.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed: A high ranking technology official with the FBI told members of Congress Tuesday that the agency is incapable of cracking locked phones and devices on its own, even with additional resources. Amy Hess, the agency's executive assistant director for science and technology told a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that encrypted communications continue to pose a challenge to the American law enforcement, and to the safety of the American public. But when asked by lawmakers to provide a practical solution beyond the FBI's talking points, she said that the cooperation of technology companies would be necessary. According to the New York Times, "The FBI defended its hiring of a third-party company to break into an iPhone used by a gunman in last year's San Bernardino, Calif., mass shooting, telling some lawmakers on Tuesday that it needed to join with partners in the rarefied world of for-profit hackers as technology companies increasingly resist their demands for consumer information." They are stressing the importance of cooperation with tech companies and "third parties" to help fight terrorism, claiming they do not have the capabilities and resources available to crack encrypted devices. Congress is currently debating potential legislation on encryption.

Comments

After running Edward Snowden out of town

[Hadlock]

Should it come to any surprise that the people they need don't want to work for the government? Or fled to Berlin to escape a similar fate?
 
If you keep backdooring encryption and ostracizing your own citizens who are strong on security, you can't expect to have any citizens who particularly want to help you out.
 
You can't just throw warm bodies at the problem like you can with traditional war. The Germans lost Einstein and countless other academic Jews to countries like the United States and Russia in WW2, and now the same thing is happening with security experts in the United States. Good luck with that.

Re: Dear FBI and US Gov

[TapeCutter]

Oh please, if the FBI had found anything even remotely useful they would be publicly beating Apple and lawmakers over the head with it. This whole saga is nothing more than a political wedge to extend their powers of search and seizure.