FBI: Encryption increasing problem

The FBI is facing an increasing struggle to access readable information and evidence from digital devices because of default encryption, a senior FBI official told members of Congress at a hearing on digital encryption Tuesday. Amy Hess said officials encountered passwords in 30 percent of the phones the FBI seized during investigations in the last ...

How Apple makes encryption easy and invisible

Do you know how many times a day you unlock your iPhone? Every time you do, you’re participating in Apple’s user-friendly encryption scheme. Friday, the company hosted a security “deep dive” at which it shared some interesting numbers about its security measures and philosophy as well as user habits. To be honest, we’re less concerned ...

Apple, FBI set to resume encryption fight at House hearing

The encryption battle between Apple and the FBI is moving from the courtroom to Congress next week. Representatives from the tech titan and the federal law enforcement agency are scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the debate over how the use of encryption in tech products and services hampers ...

Feinstein encryption bill sets off alarm bells

A draft version of a long-awaited encryption bill from Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., was leaked online last week, and the technology industry is already calling foul. The bill requires any company that receives a court order for information or data to “provide such information or data to such government in an ...

"Petya" ransomware encryption cracked

Utility generates unscrambling key. Users whose data has been held to ransom by the Petya malware now have an option to decrypt the information, thanks to a new tool that generates an unscrambling key. Petya appeared around March this year. Once executed with Windows administrator privileges, Petya rewrites the master boot record on the computer's ...