- Apr 21, 2016
- 3,405
The FBI has long been one of the main parties asking for backdoors in smartphones, explaining on several occasions through the voice of Director Christopher Wray that unlocking devices involved in criminal or terrorist investigations wasn’t possible because of strong encryption.
More recently, Wray, who himself lobbied for regulations that would force smartphone manufacturers to embed backdoors into their devices, explained that the FBI had no less than 7,775 locked phones that it couldn’t hack, all of them related to illegal activities that it was investigating.
Wray used this number as a catalyst for pursuing the use of backdoors for the government, always pointing out that these devices might hold key evidence that could help in the fight against criminals.
But as it turns out, this number was incorrect, and the agency acknowledged in a statement for The Washington Post that there are actually significantly fewer iPhones that it cannot unlock. Inflating the number happened after counting the same devices twice or even more, it said.
“The FBI’s initial assessment is that programming errors resulted in significant over-counting of mobile devices reported,” the agency confirmed.
Read more: FBI Admits It Inflated the Number of iPhones It Can’t Hack
More recently, Wray, who himself lobbied for regulations that would force smartphone manufacturers to embed backdoors into their devices, explained that the FBI had no less than 7,775 locked phones that it couldn’t hack, all of them related to illegal activities that it was investigating.
Wray used this number as a catalyst for pursuing the use of backdoors for the government, always pointing out that these devices might hold key evidence that could help in the fight against criminals.
But as it turns out, this number was incorrect, and the agency acknowledged in a statement for The Washington Post that there are actually significantly fewer iPhones that it cannot unlock. Inflating the number happened after counting the same devices twice or even more, it said.
“The FBI’s initial assessment is that programming errors resulted in significant over-counting of mobile devices reported,” the agency confirmed.
Read more: FBI Admits It Inflated the Number of iPhones It Can’t Hack
