James Comey Says 'Dozens' Of Terrorists Have Eluded The FBI Thanks To Encryption
from the 0-999-TERRORISTS-UNSURVEILLED dept
The administration won't back FBI Director James Comey's push for encryption backdoors. Neither will Congress, at least not at this point. (But just give 'em one terrorist attack…) Former intelligence officials have written off backdoored encryption as a lost cause, if not a genuinely bad idea. But Comey continues to peddle his "gone dark" future to whoever will listen. In this case, it was the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
The Committee wanted a ballpark estimate of the "going dark" problem. Comey delivered, with an answer both incredibly vague and completely underwhelming.
The Department of Justice has in the past demurred when asked to approximate the scale of what officials often call the “going dark problem.” But pressed by committee chairman Ron Johnson on how many terror suspects his agents have actually lost track of because of encryption, Comey on Wednesday gave the closest thing to a statistic that the department has publicly shared.It's a great answer, if you like unverifiable claims that suggest anywhere from 24 to hundreds of terrorists are now operating beyond the reach of subpoenas and national security letters. (Although you'd think if it was hundreds, Comey would have said hundreds.) This answer is about as precise as the "0-999" bands the government forces private companies to use when reporting government requests for user data. What it isn't, however, is a ringing endorsement of Comey's "going dark" narrative. Not that one committee member didn't try to help out Comey with his story.
“Probably the best number I can give in an open setting is dozens,” Comey said.
Johnson seemed taken aback at the response and moved on to ask another question. Later, he returned to the FBI director’s answer.Whatever the number actually is, it's high enough for Comey. And high enough for Johnson. And, coincidentally, it's also the same (approximate) number of potential ISIS recruits the FBI has managed to "disrupt," according to Comey.
“I’m a little concerned about numbers, but I will say, I’m surprised if it is only a couple dozen people who have been inspired by social media and then moved into encrypted accounts,” Johnson said.
FBI counterterrorism agents followed dozens of potential militants around the United States full time over the summer and disrupted activities pursued by many of them, FBI Director James Comey told a congressional committee on Thursday.Comey also told the committee this:
He said Islamic State militants had become expert at attracting potential recruits through social media pitches, and had mastered how to coax promising recruits into using private communications channels.This statement makes it sound as though "going dark" isn't a problem with technology, but a problem with paperwork. Either the FBI's used to getting this stuff without it, or having suspects fall off the social media grid makes obtaining court orders a little more difficult. Either way, it doesn't exactly sound like punching holes in encryption is the only way the FBI can stay abreast of the latest in terrorist chatter.
“When they find a live one, they will move them off Twitter, and move them to an end-to-end encrypted messaging app,” Comey said. He said without a court order, the FBI could not read such encrypted message traffic.
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Filed Under: encryption, fbi, going dark, james comey
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The FBI can't read its own emails?
Perhaps the FBI and Director Comey should remember that the FBI's mission is to investigate and solve CRIMES not terrorism. We have other agencies that do that.
E
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Re: The FBI can't read its own emails?
Director Comey is using fear to affect policy.
We may have other agencies to combat terrorism, but in this case the FBI is conveniently close by.
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Re: The FBI can't read its own emails?
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Inconceivable!
He keeps using that word. I don't think it means what he thinks it means.
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Re: Inconceivable!
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Re: Re: Inconceivable!
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Re: Re: Re: Inconceivable!
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Those in charge are always right, and they're always right because they're in charge
Do you agree with and support everything the government does and/or says?
If yes, then you're a patriot.
If no, then you're at the very least a potential terrorist, and need to be put under constant surveillance.
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Re: Those in charge are always right, and they're always right because they're in charge
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Re: Re: Inconceivable!
By the modern definition of terrorist, most of the Founders of the country were terrorists. Under current US policy that anyone who violently rebels is not a legitimate nation even if they win, the US would not have recognized itself as a legitimate nation back in 1776.
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Re: Inconceivable!
Same old thing as communist or whatever buzzword you want to use.
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Because the parallel construction experts can't come up with plausible scenarios fast enought?
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Wow, terror groups in the US
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Re: Wow, terror groups in the US
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The solution is simple.
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Dozens?
Methinks a far better question to ask Mr Comey is
"How many terrorist act were not prevented due to encryption?"
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Re: Dozens?
I somehow think that the average American is more at risk from more general fraud and abuse than they are from terrorism, yet he wants protection from these things removed to make his job easier to perform without having to follow due process.
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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130208/12264121921/fbi-stops-yet-another-its-own-terrori st-threats.shtml
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Fear mongering.
So he is really just chasing his own tail. . . while advocating something that will make the majority of people less secure and not an anyway prevent people from communicating in a manner that is not accessible to law enforcement.
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Re: Fear mongering.
Which, ironically, is the actual aim of the terrorists he's supposedly trying to catch.
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Comey isn't ever going to admit that. Like Upton Sinclair said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
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[citation needed]
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Them: I can but that's classified information. Can you tell us why encryption is so important?
Us: We can but that's classified information.
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You have to be very careful here in the way the FBI describes 'potential militants'. Anyone using encryption is a potential. That's pretty much what DHS put out in their 'see something say something' definitions of potential terrorists activities.
I'd not think it hard to come up with dozens under that description and be on the conservative side of the estimation. That doesn't mean these individuals are terrorists, it merely means the definition of the word has been adjusted so they can get satisfactory numbers.
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Un, it's pretty clear that Comey said the FBI could not read such traffic with a court order.That's what they've been talking about over and over. So maybe rawstory has a typo here.
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2) Children
3) File-sharing
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Attacks on encryption put evolutionary pressure on it, just like the attacks on copyright infringement have done and are still doing.
The future of privacy is scary: trusted compilers compiling trusted software and executing trusted instructions on the tamper-proof CPUs, running on trusted computers connected to trusted networks. And then, still wondering if the eye of Sauron is watching you, or if those nude pictures of your girlfriend made it to the web--again.
Also, keep in mind some of these attacks on privacy are more insidious than they seem. One way to undermine encryption is to undermine the public's trust in it. You don't need a back door to do that. In fact, all you have to do is keep saying "back door" in virtually any context and many people will become apathetic and stop using it.
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New headlines for this article
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All of the above and any other variations make just as much sense. The real reason is
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Ben Franklin
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Walt Kelly
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What a unique and not in any way familiar problem...
It must be hard for the government spy agencies, I mean, it's not like encryption or private messaging has ever occurred before...
“When they find a live one, they will move them off the phone/mail, and move them to in-person, private talks,” Comey said. He said without a court order, the FBI could not plant bugs to listen in.
People, including criminals of various types, have been able to communicate privately without someone listening in before this point, and yet somehow society and the world yet remain intact. They don't get to outlaw and bar private communications just because they're not being allowed to satisfy their voyeuristic fetishes without the involvement of a court.
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Was he misquoted (or paraphrased)?
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Re: Was he misquoted (or paraphrased)?
I would like very much to know just exactly how Mister Comey knows this to be true when he admits that he cannot follow the "live ones" and their "trainers" onto the "end-to-end encrypted messaging app, without a court order".
Did the agency just get a court order.
If that is so, then what is the problem?
If that is not so, then how the hell does Comey know where the Terrorist Recruiters take their recruits?
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Encryption is a direct common sense result of a government breaking their own 4th amendment domestically and more broadly arbitrarily spying on the worlds global internet traffic.
At this point if it's not encrypted, your doing it wrong.
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FBI chief in talks out of his ass Shocker!
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Court Order?
A court order to do what...enhanced interrogate people? Encryption is uninfluenced by the orders of a court.
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