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FBI Director Christopher Wray On Encryption: We Can't Have an 'Entirely Unfettered Space Beyond the Reach of Law Enforcement' (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Encryption should have limits. That's the message FBI Director Christopher Wray had for cybersecurity experts Tuesday. The technology that scrambles up information so only intended recipients can read it is useful, he said, but it shouldn't provide a playground for criminals where law enforcement can't reach them. "It can't be a sustainable end state for there to be an entirely unfettered space that's utterly beyond law enforcement for criminals to hide," Wray said during a live interview at the RSA Conference, a major cybersecurity gathering in San Francisco. His comments are part of a back-and-forth between government agencies and security experts over the role of encryption technology in public safety. Agencies like the FBI have repeatedly voiced concerns like Wray's, saying encryption technology locks them out of communications between criminals. Cybersecurity experts say the technology is crucial for keeping data and critical computer systems safe from hackers. Letting law enforcement access encrypted information just creates a backdoor hackers will ultimately exploit for evil deeds, they say.
Wray, a former assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice who counts among his biggest cases prosecutions against Enron officials, acknowledged Tuesday that encryption is "a provocative subject." As the leader of the nation's top law enforcement agency, though, he's focused on making sure the government can carry out criminal investigations. Hackers in other countries should expect more investigations and indictments, Wray said. "We're going to follow the facts wherever they lead, to whomever they lead, no matter who doesn't like it," he said. To applause, he added, "I don't really care what some foreign government has to say about it."
Wray, a former assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice who counts among his biggest cases prosecutions against Enron officials, acknowledged Tuesday that encryption is "a provocative subject." As the leader of the nation's top law enforcement agency, though, he's focused on making sure the government can carry out criminal investigations. Hackers in other countries should expect more investigations and indictments, Wray said. "We're going to follow the facts wherever they lead, to whomever they lead, no matter who doesn't like it," he said. To applause, he added, "I don't really care what some foreign government has to say about it."
I donated, volunteered, and voted for Trump but I gotta say... fuck his FBI director on this.
Both of my positions as a conservative (small government) and a hacker (individual software freedom) are against this.
But let's not fool ourselves into thinking the Democrats would be any better on this issue. Both parties are chock full of authoritarian fuckwits.
Leave me alone with my guns and computers please. :(
>"Encryption should have limits. That's the message FBI Director Christopher Wray had for cybersecurity experts Tuesday."
No, it shouldn't. And it can't. We have been over this over and over again. It has been proven in the REAL WORLD over and over again. Either something is secure with encryption or it isn't. You can NOT have back doors or intentional weaknesses in encryption or, eventually, EVERYONE loses and suffers. It is either secure or not secure. Back doors and weaknesses will be found by the "bad doers"- bad governments, rogue elements in governments, corporate competitors, hackers with nothing better to do, terrorists, whatever.
>"it shouldn't provide a playground for criminals where law enforcement can't reach them."
We have ALWAYS had such playgrounds. Before the days of computers and text messages and Email and web logs and "security" cameras everywhere, the government couldn't just watch what everyone did/say/go/read/etc. We had privacy and security BY DEFAULT due to the fact that it was either impractical or impossible to collect such information and sift through it en-mass. And it would have been UNTHINKABLE that citizens would ever allow the government to do so in a free country.
In an age where information is power, privacy and security are more important than ever. And just passing laws to "protect" this or that isn't going to cut it. Strong encryption is the only option we have. Mess that up, and we have no real protections left.
Its because of jackasses like you, Hoover, etc, that we NEED and DEMAND bullet proof network security and encryption.
If you need a refresher on the reasons why, try the following.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
And finally, go back and re-read this thoroughly. Shut your yap until such time you UNDERSTAND the material in question.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
Not true. They are under the authority of the department of justice, which is a part of the executive branch. Their funding comes from congress as well, they must abide by laws created by congress, and the court system has oversight for criminal cases they bring. They absolutely and positively answer to elected officials no matter what your special youtube videos tell you. Just because an authoritarian president finds that he can't order them about is not the same thing as the FBI being unanswerable to elected officials. The FBI members have taken oaths to uphold the law, not oaths to an individual office holder.
Because. . . . if you keep repeating the lie, eventually people start to believe it.
Have you? Don't even try to pretend your old lady doesn't run the show at your place. That's a defacto government if I've ever seen one. Points go to ze Kernel.
"I don't need congress, I have a pen and a phone" constitutional law professor Obama started this rollercoaster and now nobody can get off.
Trump is merely the crest of the second hill.
People end up in prison all the time based on nothing more than eye-witness testimony
It is apparently even worse, people end up in prison all the time based on nothing more than a threat of longer sentence and a plea bargain offer.
Never mind the unanimous recommendation of Wray by Senate Judiciary Committee (all Democrats also voted for him), and the 92-5 confirmation in the Senate. Nope, just Republicans here, pay no attention to the Democrats on that same side!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Capone got busted on tax evasion. I'm not sure bringing him up is relevant here.
And the FBI has never gotten over the fact that it was IRS accountants who got him..........
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes