FBI director says investigators unable to unlock San Bernardino killer’s phone content

U.S. agents can not access a telephone used by the Islamist attackers in the San Bernardino shooting, the head of the FBI said Tuesday, complaining that encryption is hampering investigations.

AP The couple shot dead 14 people in December in San Bernardino, Calif.

A research from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard launched final month citing some present and former intelligence officers concluded that fears about encryption are overstated partially as a result of new applied sciences have given investigators unprecedented means to monitor suspects.

FBI investigators have struggled to pinpoint the movements of Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, before and after they attacked a holiday party at a social services agency, leaving 14 dead.

He says encrypted phones often slow down their investigations.

The FBI is asking the public to help fill out the timeline of the shooters’ moves the day of the San Bernardino massacre that killed 14 people. C…

Such technology was “overwhelmingly” affecting law enforcement, he warned.

“We still have one of those killers’ phones that we haven’t been able to open”, Comey reportedly told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“It affects cops and prosecutors and sheriffs and detectives trying to make murder cases, kidnapping cases, drugs cases”.

Asked if Congress should pass legislation to compel companies to turn over personal data with a court order, Clapper said he still thinks that the government and the USA tech industry can work out some type of voluntary agreement.

Mr Comey made the comments at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

“I’m not sure we’ve exhausted all the possibilities here technologically”, Clapper said.

Encryption is foundational to the future.

Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, said “encryption is foundational to the future”.

But some security experts doubt that the problem is as severe as Comey and others say.