The FBI announced this week that it had successfully arrested 10 people associated with the Islamic State for allegedly plotting terrorist attack on US soil during the Fourth of July holiday.
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“I do believe that our function disrupted efforts to kill people, probably in connection with July 4th”, Comey said Thursday of the arrests, which occurred through the past 4-six weeks.
Separately, a national security source said multiple overseas plots by Islamic State sympathisers had also been halted in recent days.
One could look at the Fourth of July weekend, calm despite warnings of heightened risk for a terror attack, and say that ISIS either failed in its attempts to attack the homeland or was deterred by the massive security increases.
Preventing law enforcement authorities from having access to encrypted communications would make it easier for sympathizers of Islamic State militants to carry out an attack in the United States, FBI Chief James Comey said on Wednesday.
FBI Director James Comey, along with officials from the Department of Justice and state law enforcement, requested a “dialogue” with the private sector to enable the government to obtain exceptional access to encrypted data.
Comey said that some of the people who had been arrested in the last month had been communicating on encrypted platforms – a concern he discussed before Congress on Wednesday – but he acknowledged that, in these particular cases, agents were able to use other investigative methods.
He called on technology companies to provide law enforcement agencies with better access to encrypted communications.
Comey added that some of the people the FBI arrested had moved to encrypted messaging applications to interact with ISIL – a phenomenon that law enforcement refers to as “going dark”.
Companies like Apple and Google are now promising to ensure greater levels of encryption for their services following the revelations of Edward Snowden and his revealing of the US-company data-sharing partnership PRISM that passed on customer data to authorities.
Comey went on to say that ISIS is a lot more unpredictable than al-Qaeda was, and that officials “can’t be sure” what, if anything, these operatives are planning to do at any given time.
More than fireworks were planned for the Fourth of July, according to the FBI.
“While this number is lower in comparison to many of our worldwide partners, we closely analyse and assess the influence groups like ISIL have on individuals located in the United States who are inspired to commit acts of violence”.
“The reason I say it that way is the nature of these guys”, he said. The government couldn’t demand companies turn over information because the new technology would give them no way to comply with a court order – increasing, they are introducing devices can only be opened by the user, something known as “strong encryption”.
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TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, theoretically, the way this is supposed to work is they’re supposed to go into a judge and actually get a warrant.
