William Barr Turns Up The Heat On The DOJ's Anti-Encryption Rhetoric

William Barr Turns Up The Heat On The DOJ's Anti-Encryption Rhetoric

5 years ago
Anonymous $9jpehmcKty

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190724/13061742645/william-barr-turns-up-heat-dojs-anti-encryption-rhetoric.shtml

The DOJ has now spent more than a year dodging an obligation it created itself. For years, FBI directors and DOJ officials have told anyone who'd listen -- conference attendees, Congressional reps, law enforcement officials -- the world was going dark. Device encryption was making it far more difficult for the FBI to collect evidence from seized devices and the problem was escalating exponentially.

It wasn't. Every new "going dark" speech contained a larger number of impenetrable devices the FBI was sure contained all sorts of juicy evidence. When the FBI was asked about these devices by members of Congress, it finally decided to take a look at its numbers. The numbers were wrong. The FBI said there were around 8,000 locked devices in its possession. In reality, the number is probably less than 2,500.