14 DAY TRIAL // The much-desired encryption backdoors that some law enforcement agencies desire may very well become fact under the Trump administration, FBI Director James Comey thinks.
In the past several years, there have been many discussions around encryption - how it helps people and how it annoys law enforcement agencies because they are unable to crack it. Just last year, the FBI and Apple sparred over the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter as the tech giant said it was unable to decrypt the device even if it wanted to. Eventually, the FBI found a way to crack the phone open without Apple's help.
Trump expressed concern over this during the presidential campaign saying that Apple's refusal to help was unacceptable. Then, as he moved into the White House and started naming people left and right in key positions, it was clear that legislation against end-to-end encryption may not be that far-fetched.
Now, Comey said during a Senate hearing that he can imagine a world that ends up with legislation saying that companies that make devices in the United States have to figure out how to comply with court orders. He references the many times tech companies were unable to comply because end-to-end encryption didn't give them a look inside what people were communicating.
Contradicting statements
Motherboard reports that, during his statement, Comey complained about how the FBI was unable to unlock and access data that was stored on more than 3,000 of all the cell phones or mobile devices the agency had lawful authority to search during the past few months of 2017. That's nearly half of the total.
Despite the fact that he kept complaining about the effect full disk encryption has on the FBI's work, he claims he doesn't want backdoors. A solution, however, is needed; he doesn't name one, though.
"I don't know the answer yet. I think I said - I hope I said - last time we talked about this, it may require a legislative solution at some point. The Obama administration was not in a position where they were seeking legislation I don't know yet how President Trump intends to approach this. I know he spoke about it during the campaign, I know he cares about it, but it's premature for me to say."
Senators seemed to be divided on the issue. While some sided with the FBI, others believed the agency had to figure things on its own.