FBI Can't Open Hundreds of Phones Seized Over Six Months
- Bureau says 13% of up to 4,000 phones locked by encryption
- Apple lawyer says it spurned China request for its source code
Encryption Debate Moves From Courts to Capitol Hill
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Hundreds of mobile phones seized by the FBI over a six-month period were encrypted using passcodes that couldn’t be broken, a bureau official told U.S. lawmakers examining the conflict between law enforcement and companies over the technology.
The FBI confiscated 3,000 to 4,000 phones of all makes from October through March, of which 13 percent had encrypted data that couldn’t be accessed, Amy Hess, the bureau’s executive assistant director for science and technology, told a House Energy and Commerce panel in Washington on Tuesday.