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

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."

Comments

I'm not sure it is

[H3lldr0p]

I don't see it all that short term thinking. This is definitely part of a larger picture, a longer termed plan.

Get this wedge in now, this idea that some authority should have all the keys to the encryption kingdom, and it should be easier to keep it there when the next privacy scheme comes along. Otherwise it's a doubly hard fight the next time. You have to convince more people that the authorities are correct to want it. Do it now, when it is of less concern.

Re:I'm not sure it is

[110010001000]

Exactly. Once the plan is in place it is very hard to repeal. After all, the plan was keeping us safe. Why would you want to repeal it? Do you want the terrorists to win?

Re:I'm not sure it is

[ebyrob]

It's sad.

Breakable encryption is no encryption at all. I guess the 3 letter agencies want to back-door themselves to indeterminism along with the whole world just because they think it'll give them that last 2% of control. Perhaps they don't realize what an asymptote maximizing control is. (With an emphasis on the as)

Re:I'm not sure it is

[nine-times]

To be honest, I don't think he's exactly wrong to say that unbreakable encryption is a public safety issue. It's an issue. It's an issue we can debate and think about and talk about. If encryption is unbreakable, then it makes it harder for law enforcement to do certain things that they might validly want to do.

On the other hand, if people can't encrypt their data (or that encryption is breakable), then it creates an entirely different set of problems. People can't safeguard their data or protect their systems. It increases the vulnerability of our infrastructure. It increases the chances that criminals and terrorists can gain access to important and private information.

There are going to be real valid problems either way. There should be open discussions about what all of those problems are, and how we can mitigate them. But ultimately, I don't think breakable encryption (or backdoored encryption) is a viable long-term option, even if we were willing to live in a police state. The ability to break or circumvent encryption will inevitably fall into the hands of criminals.

Re:I'm not sure it is

[sdinfoserv]

My biggest problem with "them" having the keys to the entire kingdom is "they" have repeatedly demonstrated a lack of accountability, complete disregard to law when not being immediately scrutinized, and just the basic ability to keep the keys they already have, safe.
Other than that, what's the problem?

Re:I'm not sure it is

[geekmux]

To be honest, I don't think he's exactly wrong to say that unbreakable encryption is a public safety issue. It's an issue. It's an issue we can debate and think about and talk about. If encryption is unbreakable, then it makes it harder for law enforcement to do certain things that they might validly want to do.

On the other hand, if people can't encrypt their data (or that encryption is breakable), then it creates an entirely different set of problems. People can't safeguard their data or protect their systems. It increases the vulnerability of our infrastructure. It increases the chances that criminals and terrorists can gain access to important and private information.

There are going to be real valid problems either way. There should be open discussions about what all of those problems are, and how we can mitigate them. But ultimately, I don't think breakable encryption (or backdoored encryption) is a viable long-term option, even if we were willing to live in a police state. The ability to break or circumvent encryption will inevitably fall into the hands of criminals.

You want to have open discussions? Fine. We'll start with dismantling the FISA court system that seeks to hide Unconstitutional activity.

I agree, there are issues on both sides. No one is debating the existence of a Catch-22 here. The real problem is those who are asking for the keys to the kingdom cannot be trusted to respect The People or their Constitutional Rights. THAT is the real issue to address.

Re:I'm not sure it is

[VeryFluffyBunny]

And the FBI doesn't see weakened, back-doored, or no encryption as a threat to national security? Just think, Russia or North Korea could interfere with US elections!

Re:I'm not sure it is

[HornWumpus]

We don't get much data on the FISA courts. What we get shows the promises made to be pure, unmitigated bullshit.

The FISA judges are supposed to be holding the government to standards. They are FAILING, based on 100% FISA court warrant issue rate reported for the initial years of operation.

Rubber stamp court should be abolished immediately, all warrants quashed. All records publicly reviewed and any perjury by feds (or anybody else) prosecuted to _full_ extent of law (after a period of a few years).

I can dream can't I? Not a crime to dream of justice for the justice department, at least not yet.

Re:I'm not sure it is

[ewhenn]

I'd also wager that the 1st amendment protects encryption. I can communicate using any language I wish. In this case, I communicate in AES256. If you don't understand it, that's on you to figure out and not up to me to explain it to you. Also, I agree 100%, unbreakable encryption is not going to go away - the genie is already out of the bottle.

There is no middle choice here

[DontBeAMoran]

Either encryption works for everyone, or it works for no one.

In the end, calling unbreakable encryption an "urgent public safety issue" is pointless.

Why are cars lacking security features against terrorists?
Why are guns lacking security features against terrorists?
Why is cash lacking security features against terrorists?

The FBI/CIA/NSA does not only want to access the devices thieves/killers/terrorists, they want to spy on EVERYONE.

Re:There is no middle choice here

[110010001000]

Exactly. Think of the children. How many children could have been found if only there were no encryption? Why aren't you thinking of the children? You must want the kidnappers to win.

Re:There is no middle choice here

[Opportunist]

How many children could we have found if torture had been an option so we could make the kidnapper talk?

How many children could we have found if that whole search warrant thing wasn't a problem and we could simply break into every home with impunity and pry the house apart?

How many children could we have found if every person would get chipped at birth, like a dog, so we can track there whereabouts at every moment of their life?

How many...

tell me when it's getting close to home, ok?

Legal authority to pry them open

[nctritech]

You have the legal authority to pry them open. Get prying. Having the authority to try to open something doesn't give you the entitlement to open it. Unfortunately, it seems the top dog at the FBI does not understand this concept. It's also entirely the fault of the FBI and other government agencies with police powers that this encryption situation has gone in this direction. They made this bed and they must lie in it. No law can change the fundamental properties of mathematical operations, and good luck outlawing consumer encryption since every CPU being made nowadays (even Celerons and Atoms) has hardware AES and such strong encryption is ubiquitous. Combined with the epic failure and subsequent revelations of major flaws in the government's key escrow Clipper Chip, there is no way the FBI is killing off the spread of encryption.

Re:Oh no!

[MachineShedFred]

If he can find unbreakable encryption to be an urgent public safety issue, can I find him to be an urgent public privacy issue?

Also, no amount of wishing will put the AES-256 toothpaste back in the tube. Because, math.

Re:The benefit of the doubt

[pr0fessor]

What the law enforcement clambering for a back door or weaker encryption forget or fail to see is that the 7k cases they are talking about isn't even a drop in the bucket compared to the 17 million identity thefts each year

Crooks...of what magnitude?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

They want to catch crooks. Meanwhile, billions in dictatorships are kept down with the assistance of breaking crypto.

Are we to sacrifice them so a prosecutor can get a notch or two on his belt once in a great while?

And what are those hundreds of millions of children living with a boot on their face...forever...worth?

Torture and murder some, you are a nasty criminal. Torture and murder hundreds of thousands, and people in free countries say you are practicing self-rule.

Re:Oh no!

[sdinfoserv]

People said that when television first went to satellites. Back in the '80;s, home satellite TV boxes had card readers (just like credit cards) that had all your data id: channel and subscription info, on them. Possession of card readers, used by hackers to read/write their own cards, even for legitimate purposes (like making library cards on the same technology) became a crime - So too did even the "knowledge" of how the readers worked. It was a crime to post or share data layouts or how the hardware functioned. When a society reaches a point where it accepts that knowledge itself is a crime, essentially, outlawing ideas, the notion of "freedom" from there on is nothing more than veneer.

Re:The benefit of the doubt

[amiga3D]

The real safety issue is the lack of respect our government has for the Constitution. I for one am not happy with the whole secret court, secret warrant and other "Patriot Act" nonsense. The government has immense power and only wants more and more. The most dangerous thing in any society is a government that forgets it rules for the people and not OVER them.

Re:Spoiled short-term-thinking brat

[DickBreath]

If the FBI gets their way on this weak breakable encryption, it will have economic consequences for the US.

The other 96% of the world's population will know that they can't trust American products. They might make their own phones, systems, devices, etc even more secure against American TLAs. Thus accomplishing the opposite of what the TLAs want.

Aren't the majority of smartphones already made outside the US? Maybe all they need to do is build their own secure OS with secure encryption that the US won't like. Will the US stop people coming in with foreign made phones that are too secure?

What about economic consequences of American executives traveling abroad using insecure US made equipment and having valuable trade secrets stolen?

But think of the children!