FBI Throws Fit Because Encryption is Making it Too Hard to Spy on YouAs if the governments ubiquitous prying eyes werent intolerable enough already, now theyve started complainingrather, whiningabout the difficulty of cracking end-to-end encryption in the interest of criminal and terror investigations. In fact, FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates appeared before two Senate committees to do exactly thatleaving privacy advocates and technology experts convinced that legally required backdoors are in the works. As could be predicted, Comey used the overbroad, fear-based terrorism excuse to attempt to prove the need for government access to, well, everything Americans want to keep private. While the FBI, Comey explained, has thus far been able to foil ISIS plots, I cannot see me stopping these indefinitely. Texas Senator John Cornynsounding like a paranoid fanaticurged Comey to emphasize to lawmakers that lack of a solution would cause U.S. residents to die; but Comey vowed, I am not trying to scare folks. In a blog post in Lawfare two days before his appearance before the committees, Comey pushed the encryption issue, writing, [M]y job is to try to keep people safe. In universal strong encryption, I see something that is with us already and growing every day that will inexorably affect my ability to do that job. These are interesting statements for the director of the FBI to make, considering what the recent analysis of all wiretaps in 2014 by the Federal Courts actually revealed: of 3,554 total conversations subject to wiretaps, encryption managed to stymie government access in just four cases. In fact, state wiretaps encountered encrypted communications in just 22 instances (down from 41 in 2013), accounting for two of the four instances where the government wasnt able to crack encryption. Federal wiretaps had even lower numbersmaking Comeys statement downright illogicalthough the feds were unable to crack encryption twice, they only encountered scrambled communications three times. But the idea that Comey and the government need to protect Americans from the unrelenting ISIS threat by having guaranteed access to private communications is indisputably absurd. Wiretaps, in general, increased by 78% in a decade according to the report. But a striking majority werent even used to prevent the terror threat the FBI director claims is so crucial, that it must have access to encryption to preventdrug investigations accounted for 89% of all wiretaps last year. Of course, these figures account for reported wiretapsand vastly understate a much higher total. After the release of the official federal total, four providers called bullshit. Sprint, ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile said together that they, alone, had implemented 10,712 wiretaps pursuant to orders to do so. Without accounting for other carriers around the country, that discrepancy is already triple what the FBI claimsand almost certainly represents a higher percentage of encrypted communications the agency had difficulty with. This makes Comeys complaint not just ridiculous, but disingenuous, as well. Giving law enforcement exceptional access to data storage and communications systems through a backdoor would open those platforms to hackers, criminals, and foreign or enemy agentsnot to mention the very terrorist groups Comey is claiming the need to monitor. When experts explained the contradictionthat government access would open the door for everyone elseComey replied, Really? He also added, Maybe no one will be creative enough unless you force them tointimating the possibility of not-too-distant legislation mandating backdoor access as experts have widely theorized and warned about. These proposals [for exceptional access] are unworkable in practice, raise enormous legal and ethical questions, and would undo progress on security at a time when internet vulnerabilities are causing extreme economic harm, states the report Keys Under Doormats by a group of computer scientists and security experts about the requirement government access via backdoors. [N]ew law enforcement requirements are likely to introduce unanticipated, hard to detect security flaws. Beyond these and other technical vulnerabilities, the prospect [raises the issues of] how such an environment would be governed and how to ensure that such systems would respect human rights and the rule of law. In an interview on Democracy Now! one of the reports authors, computer technologist Bruce Schneier, advised, Its extraordinary that free governments are demanding that security be weakened because the government might want to have access. This is the kind of thing we see out of Russia and China and Syria. Referring to Comeys desire for the availability to access when called for by a warrant, he said, I cant design a computer that operates differently when a piece of paper is nearby. Senator Ron Wyden has vocally and persistently criticized the governments premise for ever-expanding surveillance tactics and domestic surveillance, in general. He used Geniusa platform more often used for annotating song lyrics that allows comments and notes in a sidebarto critically tear apart the arguments in Comeys blog post. Undermining encryption will not solve the tension between those seeking to enforce the law and those seeking to break it, he noted. What will change is that good, law-abiding Americans will lose their ability to communicate privately without breaking the law. And trying to restrict the use of encryption would cast suspicion on those who legitimately seek protected communications, such as journalists, whistleblowers, attorneys, and human rights activists [] Its time to stop attacking the technology and start focusing on real solutions to the threats facing our nation. As the public becomes increasingly alerted to the inarguable fact that the U.S. government has an unquenchable thirst for power and hegemony, dissent and calls to revolteven by a former senatorare gaining momentum. And this increasingly paranoid, money-hungry control-freak posing as our government consistently displays oppressive and fascist tendencies that belie what is perhaps the most dangerous threat of allthe government, itself. Claire Bernish writes for theAntiMedia.org, where this article first appeared. Tune in! Anti-Media Radio airs Monday through Friday @ 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. do away with the FBI And the NSA, CIA, DIA. The FBI has been whining about this stuff for years. I first personally noticed it a couple years ago when they were tearing out their hair over PGP encryption. The plots of the alleged terrorists, afterwards, seem to all be plots of the FBI, CIA, Israeli MOSSAD . ..Oh America! Oh America! The land of the free, Remember the Nazis, the KGB, and Stasi too, From:http://rhymeafterrhyme.net/oh-america-oh-america-youre-no-longer-so-free/ 