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FBI can't unlock 13% of password-protected phones it seized, official says

 WASHINGTON — The FBI cannot unlock 13% of the password-protected cellphones it has seized as evidence in the past six months, a top bureau official told a House panel Tuesday.

 

WASHINGTON — The FBI cannot unlock 13% of the password-protected cellphones it has seized as evidence in the past six months, a top bureau official told a House panel Tuesday.

About 30% of the 3,000-plus phones that the FBI has seized since Oct. 1 require passwords to open, said Amy Hess, executive assistant director of the FBI's science and technology branch. The FBI was able to unlock most of those phones, but the number that they can't get into is growing as tech companies build devices with stronger data encryption, Hess said. She also said passwords are becoming longer and more difficult to guess, even with special computer programs designed to crack them.

"Clearly, that presents us with a challenge," Hess told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which brought in law enforcement officials and tech experts to testify about the pros and cons of "end-to-end" encryption, which is designed so that only users can unlock it.

Congress is struggling to decide what legislation — if any — it should pass on encryption.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chair Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., recently unveiled a draft bill that would effectively bar end-to-end encryption by requiring tech companies to retain a way to unlock their customers' smartphones to comply with court orders to turn over information to federal agents and local police.

Law enforcement officials say that such a law is needed to keep terrorists and criminals from hiding plots and evidence from investigators armed with court orders. Silicon Valley has come out strongly against the bill, saying it will make Americans more vulnerable to cyber criminals and hackers.

Apple Inc.'s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, testified Tuesday that Apple works closely with the FBI to help solve crimes but does not believe that weakening encryption is the answer.

"We feel strongly that Americans will be better off if we can offer the very best protection for their digital lives," Sewell said.

He said Apple recently worked with the FBI to locate a kidnapping victim in Pennsylvania by helping track Internet Protocol address logs to find out where the victim was being held.

"We work with law enforcement all the time," Sewell said. "I think that gets lost sometimes."

The encryption debate came to a head this year when the FBI went to court to try to force Apple to unlock the iPhone of one of the dead terrorists who killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in an attack in San Bernardino in December.

The FBI dropped its legal battle with Apple after a third party helped agents unlock the phone. But the fight is far from over.

The Department of Justice is now trying to force Apple's assistance to unlock an iPhone linked to a drug conspiracy case in New York City. At the same time, prosecutors and police agencies throughout the country are seeking the FBI's help in unlocking other encrypted phones that might provide evidence in cases involving murders, rapes, child sexual abuse and other major felonies.

Requests involving more than 500 encrypted devices flooded the FBI's Computer Analysis Response Team and the agency’s Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory programs during a four-month period beginning last October, FBI officials have said.

A separate survey of more than a dozen state and local law enforcement agencies, based on data gathered by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and USA TODAY, found that investigators have been blocked from the contents of more than 1,000 smartphones and other devices in recent months.

 

 

 

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