Encryption Hinders Investigations: FBI Chief

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/encryption-hinders-investigations-fbi-chief/d/d-id/1321231

By Thomas Claburn
Informationweek.com
July 8, 2015

FBI Director James Comey appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on 
Wednesday to argue for legal support to weaken strong encryption, which he 
claims obstructs criminal investigations.

The title of the hearing, "Going Dark: Encryption, Technology, and the 
Balance Between Public Safety and Privacy," borrows Comey's 
characterization of encryption as way to conceal evidence of criminal 
acts.

"We are seeing more and more cases where we believe significant evidence 
resides on a phone, a tablet, or a laptop—evidence that may be the 
difference between an offender being convicted or acquitted," said Comey 
and Sally Quillian Yates, US Deputy Attorney General, in joint prepared 
remarks. "If we cannot access this evidence, it will have ongoing, 
significant impacts on our ability to identify, stop, and prosecute these 
offenders."

The concerns of Comey and Yates were echoed by Cyrus Vance Jr., District 
Attorney for New York County, who complained about the device encryption 
deployed by Apple and Google last fall.

[...]

--
Evident.io - Continuous Cloud Security for AWS.
Identify and mitigate risks in 5 minutes or less.
Sign up for a free trial @ https://evident.io/