Saturday, October 18, 2014

The FBI Director's Evidence Against Encryption Is Pathetic

The Intercept reports The FBI Director's Evidence Against Encryption Is Pathetic.

"FBI Director James Comey gave a speech Thursday about how cell-phone encryption could lead law enforcement to a ‘very dark place’ where it ‘misses out’ on crucial evidence to nail criminals. To make his case, he cited four real-life examples — examples that would be laughable if they weren’t so tragic. In the three cases The Intercept was able to examine, cell-phone evidence had nothing to do with the identification or capture of the culprits, and encryption would not remotely have been a factor."

"Hadn’t Comey found anything better since then? In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Comey both denied trying to use scare stories to make his point – and admitted that he had launched a nationwide search for better ones, to no avail."

"Facing the huge preponderance of evidence that encryption makes us safer, not less safe, Comey realizes he needs some solid evidence to support his side of the argument. But there’s a reason he hasn’t found it yet."

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