Speaking to a Senate Judiciary Committee in December, Comey said, “There’s no doubt that the use of encryption is part of terrorist tradecraft now because they understand the problems we have getting court orders to be effective when they’re using these mobile messaging apps that are end-to-end encrypted”.
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This includes the cell phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. If a phone is secured with a password, it is virtually impossible to access the data without the combination, because many companies don’t hold onto the keys.
FBI investigators have struggled to pinpoint the movements of Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, before and after they attacked a holiday party at a social services agency, leaving 14 dead.
“In San Bernardino, a very important investigation for us, we still have one of those killer’s phones that we have not been able to open”, Comey said at the hearing.
James Comey, FBI Director, said encryption was hampering the investigation as he briefed senators on emerging threats to the US.
“There are no clues except for the phone there, and they still can’t open it”, Comey said.
He didn’t go into detail, but seemed to be referring to the April 24 killing of 29-year-old Brittney Mills, who was eight months pregnant when she was shot and killed in her Baton Rouge apartment. “We are still working on it”.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who also serves on the committee, is offering an alternative bill with House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, that would create a commission of tech executives, law enforcement officials and encryption experts to try to come up with a solution.
“I’m not sure we’ve exhausted all the possibilities here technologically”, Clapper said. He said the country “is not going to walk away” from encryption, which he called key to privacy and cybersecurity.
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Companies are increasingly making devices such as cellphones with encryption that allows only the people communicating to read the messages.
