“… The shift to such applications has been described by FBI Director James Comey as “going dark” – the point at which continued monitoring by law enforcement becomes problematic”.
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“In a 60 Minutes interview, President Obama declared in a response to a question about Secretary Clinton’s use of a private server, ‘I can tell you that this is not a situation in which America’s security was endangered, ‘” Sen.
Comey answered, “I hope the American people know the Federal Bureau of Investigation well enough and the nature and character of this organization”. And I was saying that in the context of a worrisome spike in homicide in over 30 of the nation’s top 50 cities that’s occurred this year.
There is evidence the San Bernardino shooters were “at least in part” inspired by Islamic State, Comey said.
Comey referred to the Garland, Texas, shooting during testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which he pleaded for tech companies to change the design of smartphones and other electronic devices to allow for de-encryption of data under a court order. “We’re not asking for the key, just let us in with a court order”.
Authorities haven’t confirmed whether the attackers used encrypted communications to coordinate the attack, but ISIS sent out a claim of responsibility first on Telegram, an app known for its high level of encryption.
“We have no idea what he said because those messages were encrypted”.
Comey said during yesterday’s hearing that government has had exchanges with technology companies and acknowledged that both sides of the argument see the collision between the desire to be safe and private online and the needs of public safety officials.
The fear among some lawmakers that encryption may have shielded plotting or radicalization has given the debate over the technology new life.
“There are plenty of companies today that provide secure services to their customers and still comply with court orders”, said Comey. And he reiterated the position that the administration does not support backdoors: “The government shouldn’t be telling people how to operate their systems”.
Comey said he is engaged in ongoing and productive conversations with Silicon Valley.
“Terrorists are using encrypted communications and… very solid cryptography standards that haven’t been broken yet”, said David Kennedy, the CEO of TrustedSec who has worked with the Marine Corps’ cyber-warfare unit and the National Security Agency, in November.
“This isn’t going to solve the whole problem”, Comey said. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the intelligence panel chairman, and she are working on the encryption issue. The problem we face post-Snowden is it’s moved from being available to the sophisticated bad guy to being the default.
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“We have to remember limits of what we can do legislatively”, said Lee.
