It is no secret that the United States Justice Department wants tech firms to make it possible for officers to bypass encryption mechanisms on devices and applications in the context of law enforcement investigations. In line with this effort, Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday argued that increased encryption of data on devices and applications is undermining national security.
Barr stated that “[t]here have been enough dogmatic pronouncements that lawful access simply cannot be done,” but stressed that “it can be, and it must be.” The Attorney General said that currently, law enforcement often fails to access data that is stored on devices or shared between devices, even if officers have a warrant.
However, Facebook recently argued that if companies would make it possible for law enforcement to bypass encryption on apps like Facebook-owned WhatsApp, threat actors would inevitably find a way to take advantage of the same bypass mechanism, which would put millions of users at risk.
Read more: US attorney general says encryption creates security risk
