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FBI Chief Calls Unbreakable Encryption 'Urgent Public Safety Issue' (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the debate-resumes dept.

The inability of law enforcement authorities to access data from electronic devices due to powerful encryption is an "urgent public safety issue," FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday in remarks that sought to renew a contentious debate over privacy and security. From a report: The FBI was unable to access data from nearly 7,800 devices in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 with technical tools despite possessing proper legal authority to pry them open, a growing figure that impacts every area of the agency's work, Wray said during a speech at a cyber security conference in New York. "This is an urgent public safety issue," Wray added, while saying that a solution is "not so clear cut."

9 of 442 comments (clear)

  1. Think of the children by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Think of the children! No, not the children assembling iPhones in sweatshops: the children the FBI are looking to protect. Think of them.

    1. Re:Think of the children by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      As much as these asshole think of the children, I can't help but think that they're pedos.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Think of the children by sexconker · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's the Reptilians. They have a penchant for pederasty. That's why so many powerful "people" get found out as being pedophiles. They're just Reptilians.

      What can you do to stop the Reptilians? Join the Church of Scientology. The organization's main goal is containing, and eventually eliminating, the Reptilian threat on Earth.

    3. Re:Think of the children by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      No...this is cyberspace, where the men are men, the women are men and the children are FBI agents.

    4. Re:Think of the children by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      So... the FBI boss wants us to think of the FBI agents?

      Kinda makes sense, but it just doesn't really make for a catchy phrase.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Oh no! by gfxguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Heaven forbid people actually be secure in their persons, papers, and effects!

    --
    Stupid sexy Flanders.
  3. The benefit of the doubt by sinij · · Score: 5, Funny

    I will grant Christopher Wray benefit of the doubt and interpret his words charitably - he must have meant it is public safety issue that more people don't use strong cryptography, potentially exposing sensitive data to FBI and other crooks.

  4. Re:Another encryption ... by 110010001000 · · Score: 1, Funny

    I am pretty sure they are already in our heads. I hear them talking to me all the time.

  5. Re:Legal authority to pry them open by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I prefer a less.. unusual example. A search warrant grants them the right to seize my physical, paper, spiral-bound notebook. It does not grant them the right to force me to teach them how to read it.