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FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that unless the U.S. government and private industry are able to come to a compromise on the issue of default encryption on consumer devices, legislation may be how the debate is ultimately decided.
"I think there should be [room for compromise]," Wray said Wednesday night at a national security conference in Aspen, Colorado. "I don't want to characterize private conversations we're having with people in the industry. We're not there yet for sure. And if we can't get there, there may be other remedies, like legislation, that would have to come to bear."
Wray described the issue of “Going Dark” because of encryption as a "significant" and "growing" problem for federal, state and local law enforcement as well as foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He claims strong encryption on mobile phones keeps law enforcement from gaining access to key evidence as it relates to active criminal investigations.
Source: FBI director: Without compromise on encryption, legislation may be the 'remedy'
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @06:29PM
In all fairness, mobile phones and computers also increase the ability for criminals to communicate and store info. The Police did hove phone taps before. They were able to get warrants for searching/reading paper documents before (opening safes, etc.). They were able to bug person to person conversations before. Encryption does affect the police's ability to phone tap and access documents (although, to a lesser extent, mobile phones do make it easier to bug person to person conversations).
I'm not sure what the right answer is, but encryption is a change for the police.