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FBI Couldn't Access Nearly 7,000 Devices Because of Encryption (foxbusiness.com)
Michael Balsamo, writing for Associated Press: The FBI hasn't been able to retrieve data from more than half of the mobile devices it tried to access in less than a year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Sunday, turning up the heat on a debate between technology companies and law enforcement officials trying to recover encrypted communications. In the first 11 months of the fiscal year, federal agents were unable to access the content of more than 6,900 mobile devices, Wray said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Philadelphia. "To put it mildly, this is a huge, huge problem," Wray said. "It impacts investigations across the board -- narcotics, human trafficking, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, gangs, organized crime, child exploitation." The FBI and other law enforcement officials have long complained about being unable to unlock and recover evidence from cellphones and other devices seized from suspects even if they have a warrant, while technology companies have insisted they must protect customers' digital privacy.
Or, they're saying that they can't access these devices to lull criminals into a false sense of complacency.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
On how many of those devices did they have a warrant to even try to access them?
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
no different than print unlocks. You can be compelled to give your print (face) so just turn it off.
What I wish is that there was a stock way to program a panic print, such that you enter that print and the phone locks requiring a PIN to unlock. Set your middle finger to be the panic print and when you pull your phone out of your pocket near a risk situation just touch the sensor on the way out. A distinct vibrate could let you know it took.
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
My thoughts exactly. The State does not have, nor ever had, unlimited authority over information, specifically MY information. To say that this is a problem is to cast it as a negative. It is not.
Does anyone have a list of devices the FBI can't decrypt? I'd like to make sure my next phone is one on the list, but I'm not sure which Android devices pass that test.
1) On iOS, pressing the power button 5 times quickly will disable biometrics and require the PIN/password/etc authentication. ("Emergency mode" it's called)
2) Face ID requires you to look at it. If you're not looking at it it will refuse to do a recognition attempt (but still count as one of the 5 tries). If you failed to do step 1 when handing over your phone, looking everywhere else (or closing your eyes) is sufficient to fail scanning. This also means pointing the phone at your face from a distance will fail it. (And as well, it will probably scan whoever's got your phone as well, reducing the count before mandatory passcode).
My favorite was when they shouted "You can't trust Kapersky! Dirty foreigners!" Yeah, more like they have the US antivirus makers in their pocket and Kapersky isn't under their control. Honestly the three letter agencies are more of a threat to me as a US citizen than any foreign intelligence.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!