Cybersecurity
Police Cite Child Victims in Encryption Plea to Congress
- Official to call it `impediment to rescuing child victims'
- Apple lawyer to testify as companies argue for privacy rights
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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.