Police Cite Child Victims in Encryption Plea to Congress
April 18, 2016 — 12:30 PM EDT Updated on April 18, 2016 — 5:16 PM EDT
The use of strong encryption is preventing state and local police across the U.S. from fully investigating murders, sex offenses against children, drug cases and child pornography, according to law enforcement officials who will testify before a House panel.
The officials plan to come to Tuesday’s hearing armed with emotional pleas, evidence of stalled investigations and statistics to back up their arguments that companies including Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are making criminal investigations increasingly difficult by using encryption, which scrambles data with a code that can be unlocked only with a special key. They also warn of the consequences as companies such as Yahoo Inc. and Facebook Inc. move toward stronger encryption.
"During my years as an investigator, I have not seen any impediment to rescuing child victims or identifying and prosecuting child sexual predators that even comes close to the impediment created by encryption," Captain Charles Cohen, commander of the office of intelligence and investigative technologies for the Indiana State Police said in testimony prepared for the hearing and posted on the congressional panel’s website. He cited specific investigations that he said are being blocked by encryption.
Investigations Versus Privacy
The hearing before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee comes as lawmakers, the Obama administration, companies and privacy advocates struggle with how to balance the needs of national security and criminal investigators against the value of encryption in protecting privacy rights and combating hackers. Also slated to testify at the hearing are Amy Hess, the FBI’s executive assistant director for science and technology, and Bruce Sewell, Apple’s top lawyer.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-18/police-urge-surmounting-encryption-in-plea-to-u-s-lawmakers