For years , the FBI hasclaimedit needs a backdoor for encrypt gadget because too much evidence is being lost in our brave new world . At the end of 2017 , law enforcement began anew get-up-and-go , claim there were7,800devices waiting to be crack . Now it says there was a programming error and that number was totally off the mark .
The Washington Postfirst bust the story on Tuesday , and the FBI has confirmed its error , saying that an internal audited account is design to make a new judgment of the number . From the Post :
The FBI first became aware of the miscount about a calendar month ago and still does not have an accurate count of how many encrypted phones they received as part of criminal investigations last year , officials say . Last hebdomad , one internal idea put the correct number of locked phones at 1,200 , though officials expect that number to change as they launch a raw audit , which could take hebdomad to complete , according to people familiar with the work .
“ The FBI ’s initial assessment is that programming errors resulted in significant over - enumeration of mobile twist report , ’’ the FBI said in a argument Tuesday . The chest of drawers say the trouble stem from the use of three distinct database that led to repeated counting of phones . Tests of the methodology conduct in April 2016 failed to detect the flaw , concord to the great unwashed intimate with the study .
The late combat for a individual governmental gateway into write in code devices began in earnest back in 2016 under former FBI Director James Comey and the Obama governance . The FBI made a public case against Apple ’s refusal to build in a backdoor on the iPhone in the wake of the San Bernardino shot and the subsequent difficulty of accessing one of the gun ’s gimmick . At the time , Apple CEO Tim Cookcalleda victor key for his company ’s encryption “ the software equivalent of cancer . ” The FBI subsequently foundanother wayto break into the gadget , basically nullifying its argument .
Since then the FBI has taken to calling cases in which it trust there ’s important evidence on an unaccessible equipment , “ Going Dark . ” In his typically florid style , Comeywrotein his late rule book that Silicon Valley execs “ do n’t see the duskiness the FBI sees . ” And since Comey ’s lighting , the fresh manager , Christopher Wray , has ramped up the complaints . In January , he differentiate the House Judiciary Committee , “ In fiscal year 2017 , the FBI was ineffectual to get to the content of more or less 7,800 mobile devices using appropriate and available proficient tools , even though there was sound authority to do so . ” He ’s repeatedly parroted the statistic , which held even shivery significance because , in 2016 , the delegacy exact that only 880 devices were uncrackable . The logical implication was clear , this trouble is becoming an epidemic .
The FBI ’s admission that it ’s really not sure how many devices are giving it problem comes at an interesting meter . Just last week , theElectronic Freedom Foundation , register a FOIA request regarding numerous aspects of the FBI ’s claims . The dramatic spindle in tough machine raised cerise flags , but the EFF also wants to know , “ when and how the FBI attain that some remote entity was capable of hacking the San Bernardino iPhone , and what the FBI was recite Congress about its capability to hack into cellphones . ”
To put it just , encryption expert overwhelmingly jibe that there’sno such thingas a “ dependable backdoor . ” Our equipment are n’t secure enough as it is — a stage that is clearly demonstrated by theGrayKeyandCellebriteservices that the FBI already utilize to get at iPhones . Hardcoding a backdoor makes it virtually impossible to close in the inevitable event that hackers find the opening . And they always get hold the opening .
The FBI wants us to commit it with the keys to our gimmick , while it take a crap “ programming errors ” perform a elementary tally of how many devices it has in its stocktaking . It wants to make a case that applied science has changed so much that police force enforcement is being locked out , but it has far more investigative peter at its administration than ever . We ’re surveilled from every counsel , and we will digital track everywhere . The authority is simply being lazy and disingenuous .
[ Washington Post ]
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