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FBI Failed to Access 7,000 Encrypted Mobile Devices

posted by takyon on Monday October 23 2017, @10:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the world's-tiniest-violin-ringtone dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

FBI failed to access 7,000 encrypted mobile devices

Agents at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have been unable to extract data from nearly 7,000 mobile devices they have tried to access, the agency's director has said.

Christopher Wray said encryption on devices was "a huge, huge problem" for FBI investigations. The agency had failed to access more than half of the devices it targeted in an 11-month period, he said.

One cyber-security expert said such encryption was now a "fact of life". Many smartphones encrypt their contents when locked, as standard - a security feature that often prevents even the phones' manufacturers from accessing data. Such encryption is different to end-to-end encryption, which prevents interception of communications on a large scale.

Cyber-security expert Prof Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey said device encryption was clearly frustrating criminal investigations but it would be impractical and insecure to develop "back doors" or weakened security.

In a time when the government is committing criminal acts, is it not advisable for citizens to do what they can to protect themselves from that crime?

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Justin Case on Monday October 23 2017, @10:52PM (2 children)

    by Justin Case (4239) on Monday October 23 2017, @10:52PM (#586628) Journal

    Yeah, sure, blame BBC not the submitter, but...

    FBI failed to access 7,000 encrypted mobile devices

    is actually

    Encryption succeeded in protecting 7,000 devices from malicious access

    "Spin" like this is part of how we've had fake news since forever. Media lapdogs always side with the biggest thug on the block.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:03PM

    by meustrus (4961) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:03PM (#586940)

    Absolutely! Headlines like these are definitely an example of the problematic bias in our news media.

    Just don't think that this attaches "pro-FBI" to the political bias you may already believe exists. It's political, sure, but not left vs right. This one is pretty clearly rich vs poor, in which the rich like having powerful law enforcement (which they can control).

    --
    If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?

  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday October 24 2017, @06:09PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @06:09PM (#586972) Journal

    Both statements are factually correct, and therefore, not fake.

    Just because certain people want to create a false equivalency regarding "fake news" doesn't mean we should let them.