The FBI asked the US Congress to legislatively weaken the protection of iOS and Android devices

A note was recently published on Habré that the FBI opposes encryption of user data on smartphones. In particular, FBI Director James B Comey made a speech on October 16 at the Brookings Institution (Washington), trying to convey to the legislature and the public the views of security agencies.

As far as one can understand, neither of them penetrated, and now the FBI has appealed to Congress with a request to legislatively weaken the protection of mobile devices and applications. Namely, to amend some laws, allowing (or rather, forcing) manufacturers to leave loopholes in the software of smartphones and tablets for state security agencies.

In particular, we are talking about the law CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act), adopted in 1994. In this law, landline telephone operators were obliged to leave the possibility for security agencies to connect to any lines.

In this law, for obvious reasons, there is no mention of wireless data transfer, encryption on cell phones and other new types of communication and protection from listening. The result - authorities have a legal right to receive information from telecom operators, but in many cases there is no technical ability to listen to the desired communication channel. “We have a legal right to intercept and listen to communications and receive information on a judicial warrant, but often there is no technical ability to do this,” the FBI director said in the above statement.

It is interesting that earlier Koumi opposed all kinds of backdoors, advocating the introduction of a transparent procedure for connecting security agencies to individual devices and communication channels. Now, it seems that his position has changed.

The FBI is asking Congress to amend CALEA, adding a few amendments to leave a loophole for the FBI, NSA and other comrades, a loophole that allows you to listen to communication lines and individual devices.

Some politicians in the United States have already opposed such innovations. But the battle seems to be just beginning.

Via theverge