Florida Man Enters the Encryption Wars

Plus: A US judge rules against police cell phone “tower dumps,” China names alleged NSA agents it says were involved in cyberattacks, and Customs and Border Protection reveals its social media spying tools...

The FBI's Anom Stunt Rattles the Encryption Debate

The agency spent years running a secure phone network for criminals. So much for “going dark.”...

Cybersecurity for the Public Interest

The Crypto Wars have been waging off-and-on for a quarter-century. On one side is law enforcement, which wants to be able to break encryption, to access devices and communications of terrorists and criminals. On the other are almost every cryptographer and computer security expert, repeatedly...

UK law enforcement: an uphill struggle to fight hackers

About 16 years ago in the UK, I walked into a local police station to report a computer crime, because walking into local police stations is how they did things back then. There may well also have been penny farthing bicycles, real pea souper fogs, Mary Poppins, and Jack the Ripper, though I coul...

New National Academies Report on Crypto Policy

The National Academies has just published "Decrypting the Encryption Debate: A Framework for Decision Makers." It looks really good, although I have not read it yet. Not much news or analysis yet. Please post any links you find in the comments, and I will summarize them here...

Alternatives to Government-Mandated Encryption Backdoors

Policy essay: "Encryption Substitutes," by Andrew Keane Woods: In this short essay, I make a few simple assumptions that bear mentioning at the outset. First, I assume that governments have good and legitimate reasons for getting access to personal data. These include things like controlling crim...

Comey Talks Strong Crypto, Silent on WikiLeaks

CHESTNUT HILL, Ma.—FBI director James B. Comey today revived the Going Dark discussion during a keynote address at the Boston Conference on Cyber Security, saying it’s time for an adult conversation on the prevalence of strong encryption and how it hinders criminal and national security...

Clarke: Precedent-Seeking FBI Won't Ask NSA to Unlock Phone

The National Security Agency’s silence in the Apple-FBI story is probably not so surprising. But that hasn’t stopped people from dragging the NSA’s name into the conversation. The latest to do so is Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism chair under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton...

Delicate Hardware Hacks Could Unlock Shooter's iPhone

A researcher at IOActive believes the U.S. intelligence community has the capability to carry out a delicate hardware hack that could unlock the iPhone 5c at the center of the current FBiOS debate. The attack requires considerable financial resources and acumen with an intrusive attack against th...

ENCRYPT Act of 2016 — Proposed Bill Restricts States to Ban Encryption

The last year's ISIS-linked terror attacks in Paris and California has sparked debate on Encryption, and the intelligent agencies started reviving their efforts to weaken encryption on various encrypted products and services. But, there is some Good News! California Congressman and Texas Republic...