FBI’s plans to hack into 7000 mobile phones fall through

During the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference, the director of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Christopher Wray made a statement, announcing that their operation of 11 months did not go as planned due to strong encryption of mobile phones. To quote his exact words, encryption is “a huge, huge problem”.

FBI complaints that encryption of mobile phones is too strong

While it is important to keep the world safe, FBI has stepped over the line more than a few times. Agents of the notorious bureau, security researchers and users have different ideas of how computers and mobile phones have to be protected. According to FBI, 7,000 of mobile phones they wished to hack into were discovered to be too strongly protected by encryption.

FBI fails to hack mobile phones

While some would see it as a celebration for online privacy, some might regard it as a threat to security in general. Nowadays, even manufacturers of phones are unable to obtain information about their clients. To be blunt, FBI is not too happy, or more like irritated, for not being able to retrieve information it needs. What is the magical method for keeping FBI out of mobile phones? It is the fact when content in smartphones is encoded when the device is locked.

Of course, there many opinions circulating around, concerning the question whether law enforcement agencies should be allowed to access content of phones, belonging to individuals who threaten national security and/or other people’s lives. In some cases, the permission is granted, but due to strong encryption, agencies are unable to carry out their investigations. This is the exact scenario that FBI has admitted: they had the necessary authorization, but still failed to retrieve data from 7000 of suspicious mobile phones.

Security of iPhone phones and San Bernardino shooting

Probably one of the biggest nail-bitters for FBI was the San Bernardino attack of 2015. The terroristic attack took place in California, in an Inland Regional Center. Back then, a man and wife frightened the US and the entire world with a mass shooting and attempts to detonate a bomb. In 2016, FBI stated that the agency was unable to unlock a phone (iPhone 5C) of one of the terrorists. Then, a strong battle between Apple and FBI began.

Honoring its privacy conditions, Apple refused to act in accordance with FBI’s requirements. In the end (without Apple’s help), law enforcement agencies confirmed that they had successfully hacked into the suspicious phone. It was claimed that a Cellebrite, a company from Israel, helped during this mission. Nonetheless, some were convinced that FBI simply assigned professional hackers to the job and they broke into the iPhone device. As a result, people from United States were divided into two camps: the ones supporting Apple’s positions, and the ones agreeing with FBI.

Which opinion is the most acceptable to you?

Some would agree that protecting nation’s security is more important than keeping a few text messages secured behind nine locks. However, it is important to remember that without strong encryption, hackers would have more ways of breaking into users’ mobile phones. So, by keeping one side happy, the other one has to suffer the consequences. The question is which?

Source: bbc.com.

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