FBI director says smartphone encryption hindering investigations 'across the board'
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Sunday revealed strong smartphone encryption has prohibited his agency from gleaning data from more than half of the devices it attempted to access in the past 11 months, hindering progress in a wide range of ongoing investigations.

Speaking at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Philadelphia, Wray said the FBI has been unable to pull data from more than 6,900 devices, the Associated Press reports.
"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."
Wray's comments reignite an ongoing debate that speaks to the efficacy of encryption on consumer electronic devices like smartphones and tablets. Law enforcement agencies have long argued that strong encryption obstructs efforts to keep the public safe, as vital evidence might be locked away on protected devices. Tech companies, who effectively stand as gatekeepers to customer data, have countered, saying it is in the public's interest to keep that information secure.
Apple brought the encryption debate to the fore last year when it fought U.S. Justice Department requests for assistance in accessing an iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Apple declined the department's overtures, saying that the creation of a backdoor for one phone would undermine the security of millions of iOS devices worldwide.
At the time, CEO Tim Cook called the FBI demand "dangerous."
"But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone," Cook said in an open letter to customers last year.
A court battle ensued, but proceedings were cut short when the government successfully unlocked Farook's iPhone with the help of an unidentified outside party.
As for the FBI's current encryption-related problems, Wray did not specify how many of the more than 6,900 devices were Apple products. He did, however, strike a more balanced tone over the encryption issue than did his predecessor, James Comey.
"I get it, there's a balance that needs to be struck between encryption and the importance of giving us the tools we need to keep the public safe," Wray said.
As noted by the AP, the Justice Department under President Donald Trump has suggested it will take a more aggressive stance on the topic of encryption. However, the government has yet to details what policy changes, if any, will be made toward securing consumer data from technology companies, and whether those regulations cover both cloud computing services and on-device encryption.

Speaking at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Philadelphia, Wray said the FBI has been unable to pull data from more than 6,900 devices, the Associated Press reports.
"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."
Wray's comments reignite an ongoing debate that speaks to the efficacy of encryption on consumer electronic devices like smartphones and tablets. Law enforcement agencies have long argued that strong encryption obstructs efforts to keep the public safe, as vital evidence might be locked away on protected devices. Tech companies, who effectively stand as gatekeepers to customer data, have countered, saying it is in the public's interest to keep that information secure.
Apple brought the encryption debate to the fore last year when it fought U.S. Justice Department requests for assistance in accessing an iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Apple declined the department's overtures, saying that the creation of a backdoor for one phone would undermine the security of millions of iOS devices worldwide.
At the time, CEO Tim Cook called the FBI demand "dangerous."
"But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone," Cook said in an open letter to customers last year.
A court battle ensued, but proceedings were cut short when the government successfully unlocked Farook's iPhone with the help of an unidentified outside party.
As for the FBI's current encryption-related problems, Wray did not specify how many of the more than 6,900 devices were Apple products. He did, however, strike a more balanced tone over the encryption issue than did his predecessor, James Comey.
"I get it, there's a balance that needs to be struck between encryption and the importance of giving us the tools we need to keep the public safe," Wray said.
As noted by the AP, the Justice Department under President Donald Trump has suggested it will take a more aggressive stance on the topic of encryption. However, the government has yet to details what policy changes, if any, will be made toward securing consumer data from technology companies, and whether those regulations cover both cloud computing services and on-device encryption.
Comments
Similarly, do you weaken and compromise all encryption technologies for ALL people because they can’t get into some people’s phones as easily as before ??
If the technology companies, airline carriers, banks and neighborhood watches are doing all the police work for the authorities, not sure why we still have them around on the payroll ?? If all they are going to do is show up on the scene for pictures after the fact, like in Vegas!
Times change. Adapt and overcome.
* Note: the half running iOS. The other half -- running Androd -- opened quite easily
My phone is an extension of my mind, it is memories, desires, history, location, fears, ambition, and stupid misguided anger.
No ONE, especially the government has any right to a single BIT of it.
Warrants are also rather inconvenient, so in a few famous words.
”Come and take it!”
I would love to see you even try, find out how angry you can make a sleeping beast. In the meantime, do your job the way us honest Americans do, hard work!
Give me liberty, or give me death. 🇺🇸
If FBI or CIA, NSA, etc want to find out people’s secret, just hire the best people to do it. If some people can invent the encryption, then some other people can break the encryption. FBI has an unlimited bank account backing them. Just hire the right guy.
However, I guess NSA already has the technology to break the code. Just US govt don’t want to reveal their ability in court.
On side note:
In a sense, Snowden is a hero. He give up everything in his life to do something is right.
US government will not be embarrassed if they did everything right. But they had done some really bad things. They have so many dirty tricks and shady things that they don’t want anyone to find out.
if he is a Russian, everyone will treat him as nation hero in US.
I vote, serve on juries and email my government officials, even though it’s a waste of time. I believe we must fight for the remaining rights left to us, as others don’t seem to care. Maybe I’m old fashioned in my early thirties, but doing nothing is stupid.
We shouldn’t leave government to be run by corrupt yuppies or overzealous spenders.
So no sir, I wouldn’t “cry like a little girl” or turn over my phone. It wouldn’t be very patriotic to reward bad behavior from a far overreaching government.
“The true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.”
Yes, if they are after a particular person, they have their ways. I think this is more about having easy access and fishing. There were speeches where Comey was talking about them wanting end-to-end encryption, but through a central channel where it could be decrypted at that point for trusted parties.
And, that's the problem. If there were truly a 'good guy' out there, I suppose we'd all trust them with this kind of access/power. But, there is no good-guy like that. And, once there's a back-door, it's just a matter of time until it gets out to 'bad-guys.' I don't think they will win on the back-door thing... but we'll need to watch closely for the above 'end-to-end' with open middle type stuff.
Yep, and that's how it begins. I'm sure that's the exact logic and argument they used to authorize torture post 9/11. Most of us would do *anything* under the right circumstances, that doesn't necessarily make it right, especially as a broad principle.
It was pretty easy to spot carrier pigeons and shoot them down. Public payphones and their likes were never used for nefarious purposes.
/s
Or, they can put hundreds of millions (if we are just talking about US citizens) at risk.
Let me think... No
If the FBI wants to find out who the criminals talked to, get a court order and ask the phone company.
95% of these people probably didn’t use encryption for their communications.
Same thing for their emails... but contact google, yahoo, etc. instead.
Only more recent Android versions have encryption as the default like iOS. Older ones were optional or not at all.