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from the trust-us-we're-the-government dept.
The Washington Post has a story which says:
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on Tuesday renewed a call for tech companies to help law enforcement officials gain access to encrypted smartphones, describing it as a "major public safety issue."
Wray said the bureau was unable to gain access to the content of 7,775 devices in fiscal 2017 — more than half of all the smartphones it tried to crack in that time period — despite having a warrant from a judge.
"Being unable to access nearly 7,800 devices in a single year is a major public safety issue," he said, taking up a theme that was a signature issue of his predecessor, James B. Comey.
Wray was then quoted as saying:
"We're not interested in the millions of devices of everyday citizens," he said in New York at Fordham University's International Conference on Cyber Security. "We're interested in those devices that have been used to plan or execute terrorist or criminal activities."
He then went on to promote the long-disparaged idea of key escrow:
As an example of a possible compromise, Wray cited a case from New York several years ago. Four major banks, he said, were using a chat messaging platform called Symphony, which was marketed as offering "guaranteed data deletion." State financial regulators became concerned that the chat platform would hamper investigations of Wall Street.
"In response," Wray said, "the four banks reached an agreement with the regulators to ensure responsible use" of Symphony. They agreed to keep a copy of their communications sent through the app for seven years and to store duplicate copies of their encryption keys with independent custodians not controlled by the banks, he said.
To me this is more of the utter nonsense the government has spouted. When will they understand that key escrow only works when one trusts the government and the keeper of the keys?
Previously:
(Score: 3, Touché) by frojack on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:07AM (7 children)
Seven thousand terrorists in 2017, and we know about maybe 5 or 7 in the US.
Where is he hiding all these terrorists. How is he covering up all these attacks. Who is dropping all these phones, but otherwise making a clean get away?
When anything bad happens, the authorities rush to assure everyone that it was just and accident or a common criminal. Yet it appears any common shooting, apartment fire, train crash, tanker truck crash becomes a terrorist attack when it suits the.
Show me the phones, and the list of names of their owners.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:16AM
By now, most people have heard about the legend of The Kind Rapist. This legend is actually a collection of supposed eyewitness accounts that tell about a rapist who is excessively merciful and kind. One story states that, after being saved by a woman from being hit by a car, The Kind Rapist decided to reward her by raping her until she was pregnant. A different rumor talks about how The Kind Rapist displayed his saintly demeanor to the world when a woman - who he had just finished raping - failed to thank him for properly utilizing her; he allegedly did so by beating and raping her until she was no longer capable of movement. There are countless more legends just like these, and all of them supposedly happened within the last few years.
Most who hear these stories doubt their veracity, but there is another question to consider: How does this legend affect the people who hear it, and their communities? A person interested in figuring out the answer to that very question visited various different towns and cities and told the stories to people who had never heard them before, in order to see how it would affect them. Just a few of the eye-opening reactions follow.
---
One of the people we talked to was named Wilson, an ordinary man with a normal job. After relaying the stories of The Kind Rapist to him, he immediately broke out in tears. "I can't believe such a kind individual could possibly exist," Wilson exclaimed. He continued, "I'll never be able to look at things the same way again. I feel as if I need to change for the better, as if I need to emulate that great man!" Wilson couldn't stop lavishing praise on the individual from the stories, and when we said our goodbyes, his outlook on life had changed drastically for the better. Surely Wilson would go on to do great things.
---
Next was a famed philosopher named Jones. We relayed the stories about The Kind Rapist to him, and by the time we were done, he seemed to be in a state of deep contemplation. After several minutes of silence, Jones finally spoke, "I doubt the veracity of those stories. Such a magnanimous, gentle human being is nothing but a myth. Saints don't exist in reality." He paused for a few seconds, and then said, "But does that mean the stories have no value? No. We must, as a society, strive to become better. While those legends may portray a Utopian ideal that we can never truly reach, we can seek to move towards it, and in doing so, improve society as a whole. I, at least, have decided to change for the better and struggle to become even slightly more similar to that kind man from the myths." We talked for several minutes about the valuable lessons The Kind Rapist teaches us before parting ways.
---
After several similar discussions with various different individuals, we reached a conclusion. Although we still don't know whether The Kind Rapist is a real person or simply a legend, what is certain is that the mere existence of these stories improves communities by giving people something positive to strive for. These stories give people hope. Hope for a better, kinder future. What do you think?
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:23AM (2 children)
OR criminal activities. Could include a whole host of crimes including murder, fraud, hacking, etc.
As for when they do claim high numbers of terrorists:
The Sting: How the FBI Created a Terrorist [theintercept.com]
The FBI Pressured a Lonely Young Man Into a Bomb Plot. He Tried to Back Out. Now He’s Serving Life in Prison. [theintercept.com]
Undercover FBI Agents Swarm the Internet Seeking Contact With Terrorists [theintercept.com] - "The FBI’s online activities are so pervasive that the bureau sometimes finds itself investigating its own people."
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:34AM
Ba la la la leh leh leh! Ba la la la leh leh leh! Ba la la la leh leh leh!
Yeah, get him! Jab your magic fingers into his bare snappyhole and tickle it until there's nothin' left!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @06:43PM
And littering (ie leaving a phone behind) is criminal right?
Or doing whatever it was that gave them cause to confiscate the phone...
(Score: 5, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:12AM (1 child)
So true, we do have big problems with terrorism. But it's not just the terrorists, we have many kinds of crime & violence going on. We need to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities. To restore safety. We need to lock up many, many crooks. People always say that crooks have two phones. One for the bitches and one for the dough, right? Let me tell you, that's a SMALL TIME crook. Crooked Hillary had 13 phones! According to President Obama's FBI, she had 13. You know they didn't look very hard, she probably had more. Maybe, probably, she had a lot more than 13. But the FBI couldn't get its hands on even one. They got ZERO phones from her. They did a terrible investigation! Huma Abedin from her staff said Hillary "lost" a lot of phones. And she smashed many phones with a hammer. 📱🔨 According to the guy who ran her EMAIL server, she would smash them. The only guy in 40 years that said she's smashing!
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @11:12AM
... Waaw, I've rarely seen so clear a troll desperately to redirect attention this way.....
The Angry Cheeto (== trump, note lack of capital, title and respect), hillary clinton (note lack of capital and respect),... add whatever politician you like to the list and you are still talking about horrible corrupt excuses for human beings whom should have their paymasters logo (your corporate overlords) branded on their foreheads.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 11 2018, @07:03PM
and they were probably all pals of the FBI, but that's just a coincidence.