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It is difficult for the FBI to crack most smartphone encryption

It is difficult for the FBI to crack most smartphone encryption

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The FBI is struggling to decode private messages on phones and other mobile devices that could contain key criminal evidence, and the agency failed to access data more than half of the times it tried during the last fiscal year, FBI Director Christopher Wray told House lawmakers. Wray will testify at the House Judiciary Committee Thursday morning on the wide range of issues the FBI faces. One of the issues hurting the FBI, he said, is the ability of criminals…

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FBI couldn’t retrieve data from nearly 7000 mobile phones due to encryption

FBI couldn’t retrieve data from nearly 7000 mobile phones due to encryption

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The head of the FBI has reignited the debate about technology companies continuing to protect customer privacy despite law enforcement having a search warrant. The FBI says it hasn’t been able to retrieve data from nearly 7000 mobile phones in less than one year, as the US agency turns up the heat on the ongoing debate between tech companies and law enforcement officials. FBI Director Christopher Wray says in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, US federal agents…

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FBI Chief Calls for National Talk Over Encryption vs. Safety

FBI Chief Calls for National Talk Over Encryption vs. Safety

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SAN FRANCISCO — The FBI’s director says the agency is collecting data that he will present next year in hopes of sparking a national conversation about law enforcement’s increasing inability to access encrypted electronic devices. Speaking on Friday at the American Bar Association conference in San Francisco, James Comey says the agency was unable to access 650 of 5,000 electronic devices investigators attempted to search over the last 10 months. Comey says encryption technology makes it impossible in a growing…

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American ISIS Recruits Down, but Encryption Is Helping Terrorists’Online Efforts, Says FBI Director

American ISIS Recruits Down, but Encryption Is Helping Terrorists’Online Efforts, Says FBI Director

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The number of Americans traveling to the Middle East to fight alongside Islamic State has dropped, but the terrorist group’s efforts to radicalize people online is getting a major boost from encryption technology, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday. Since August, just one American a month has traveled or attempted to travel to the Middle East to join the group, compared with around six to 10 a month in the preceding year and a half, Mr. Comey told reporters in…

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FBI: Encryption increasing problem

FBI: Encryption increasing problem

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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 six months, and investigators have had “no capability” to access information in about 13 percent of the cases. “We have seen those numbers continue to…

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Apple, FBI set to resume encryption fight at House hearing

Apple, FBI set to resume encryption fight at House hearing

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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 law enforcement activities. In February, Apple clashed with the FBI over whether the company would help investigators hack into the encrypted iPhone of San Bernardino…

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Forget iPhone encryption, the FBI can’t legally touch the software ISIS uses

Forget iPhone encryption, the FBI can’t legally touch the software ISIS uses

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The FBI insists that encrypted products like the iPhone and encrypted online services will put people in harm’s way, especially in light of the ISIS-connected San Bernardino shooting late last year. That’s why the Bureau has been arguing for encryption backdoors that would be available to law enforcement agencies, and why it looked to coerce Apple to add a backdoor to iOS. However, extensive reports that show the preparations ISIS made before hitting Paris and Brussels revealed the kind of…

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How the FBI Cracked the iPhone Encryption and Averted a Legal Showdown With Apple

How the FBI Cracked the iPhone Encryption and Averted a Legal Showdown With Apple

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An urgent meeting inside FBI headquarters little more than a week ago is what convinced federal law enforcement officials that they may be able to abandon a brewing legal fight with tech giant Apple, sources told ABC News today. In the days after the December 2015 massacre in San Bernardino, California, which killed 14 people and wounded 22 others, the iPhone left behind by one of the shooters, Syed Farook, was secretly flown to the FBI’s laboratory in Quantico, Virginia,…

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FBI Hacks iPhone, Ending Apple Encryption Challenge

FBI Hacks iPhone, Ending Apple Encryption Challenge

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The Department of Justice said in a federal court filing Monday that it had bypassed encryption on the iPhone 5c used by a terrorist in a mass shooting last year in California and requested the court vacate its order compelling Apple to assist it in accessing the device. The filing effectively ends a contentious legal battle between the federal government and Apple over the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook was fatally shot by authorities along with his wife,…

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Why few hackers are lining up to help FBI crack iPhone encryption

Why few hackers are lining up to help FBI crack iPhone encryption

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When the FBI said it couldn’t unlock the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino shooting investigation without the help of Apple, the hackers at DriveSavers Data Recovery took it as a challenge. Almost 200 man hours and one destroyed iPhone later, the Bay Area company has yet to prove the FBI wrong. But an Israeli digital forensics firm reportedly has, and the FBI is testing the method. Finding a solution to such a high-profile problem would be a…

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