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The FBI and other LEOs often complain about the risk to preventing and protecting against crime posed by the use of encryption on the internet. Recently, there have been several senior figures stating quite categorically that encryption will enable criminals to operate with impunity, completely defeating the efforts of those 'trying to protect us'.
In fact, next Wednesday, both the Senate Intelligence Commitee and the Senate Judiciary Committee are hosting "hearings" for [FBI Director James] Comey, about the issue of "going dark" due to encryption.
[...] So it's rather interesting that before all that, the US Courts had released their own data on all wiretaps from 2014, in which it appears that encryption was almost never an issue at all, and in the vast majority of cases when law enforcement encountered encryption, it was able to get around it. Oh, and the number of wiretaps where encryption was even encountered has been going down rather than up:
The number of state wiretaps in which encryption was encountered decreased from 41 in 2013 to 22 in 2014. In two of these wiretaps, officials were unable to decipher the plain text of the messages. Three federal wiretaps were reported as being encrypted in 2014, of which two could not be decrypted. Encryption was also reported for five federal wiretaps that were conducted during previous years, but reported to the AO for the first time in 2014. Officials were able to decipher the plain text of the communications in four of the five intercepts.
Obviously, if more communications are encrypted by default, it's true that the numbers here would likely rise. But the idea that there's some massive problem that requires destroying the safety of much of the internet, seems more than a bit far-fetched.
Original Submission
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Sunday July 05 2015, @05:22AM
The funny part is that for the most part they've brought it upon themselves too. If they'd been obeying the law and getting warrants for intercepts as opposed to scooping up everything things would have happily continued as they always had.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by K_benzoate on Sunday July 05 2015, @06:02AM
They're essentially whining that their illegal surveillance is no longer as effective as it used to be. The most irritating part is the incredulity with which they react when they're told they never should have had those capabilities in the first place, and indeed only got away with it for so long because of lack of real oversight and secrecy (the later thankfully shattered by Snowden).
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.