Last week FBI Director James Comey at the Boston College conference on cybersecurity stated:
While that quote in the article is taken out of context, it is even more disturbing when taken in context. The included video puts the quote in context where Comey is arguing against widespread access to strong encryption with the public. There are other quotes included as well that are just as disturbing, such as:
Even our communications with our spouses, with our clergy members, with our attorneys are not absolutely private in America... ...In appropriate circumstances, a judge can compel any one of us to testify in court about those very private communications.
Is this the "adult conversation" on encryption he was getting ready for last year?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:13AM
But does anyone actually have EMP weapons that will destroy rather than disable sufficient quantities of electronic devices to render digital society crippled?
The majority of permanent EMP disruption I have read about required it to be absorbed into the power grid and cause a voltage surge through equipment assuming 110-220V without fuses or current limiting devices.
This means most wireless devices would be safe. Any unplugged devices would be safe, any devices running on solar, generator or other off-grid power systems would be fine (not enough wire to inductively couple and cause a sufficient surge to disrupted/destroy.)
Maybe my understanding is wrong, but pretty much everything I've read has stated the sort of movie-esque 'everything goes offline thanks to an EMP' actions shown, even from an airburst nuke, would not cause the level of disruption spread in the media made off 50s era assumptions about electronics.