The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is known for its attempts to recover communications from devices they aim to break. Be it from hackers or other criminals.
But in 2017, after a year trying, the FBI has not been able to retrieve data from more than half of the mobile devices.
In a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Philadelphia, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the federal agents were unable to access the content of more than 6,900 mobile devices, This again turned up the heat of debate between technology companies and the law officials.
At one side, tech companies are doing what they can to protect their users' data. No matter who they are, the companies just want to protect them. But on the other side, law enforcement officials are trying to recover encrypted communications to prevent crimes to further happen.
"To put it mildly, this is a huge, huge problem," said Wray. "It impacts investigations across the board - narcotics, human trafficking, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, gangs, organized crime, child exploitation."
Previously, the FBI and other law enforcement officials have complained about being unable to unlock and recover evidence from seized mobile devices and others, although that they have a warrant to do so.
One of the most famous, was the debate when the Justice Department tried to force Apple to unlock an encrypted iPhone 5C used by a gunman in a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. In 2015 and 2016, Apple has received and objected to or challenged to at least 11 orders issued by U.S. district courts under the All Writs Act of 1789.
The department eventually relented after the FBI said it paid an unidentified vendor who unlocked the phone, so Apple's assistant was no longer needed, avoiding a court showdown.
The Justice Department under President Donald Trump has suggested that it will be aggressively seeking access to encrypted information from technology companies. But in another speech, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stopped short of saying exactly what action it might take.
"I get it, there's a balance that needs to be struck between encryption and the importance of giving us the tools we need to keep the public safe," Wray continued. But the thing is, "the threats that we face keep accumulating, they are complex, they are varied,"
Wray also decried a potential "blind spot" for intelligence gathering if Congress doesn't reauthorize an intelligence surveillance law to set.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the government to collect information about militants, people suspected of cybercrimes or proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other foreign targets outside the U.S.. The officials said that the act is vital to national security.
