The rise of Web-based e-mails and social networks are frustrating FBI as it's "increasingly unable" to conduct certain types of surveillance that would be possible on cellular and traditional telephones.
Since the companies aren't required to build in back doors in advance, or because technology doesn't permit it, the police can’t successfully undertake the task of court-authorized eavesdropping.
According to FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni, “Any solution should include a way for police armed with wiretap orders to conduct surveillance of Web-based e-mail, social networking sites, and peer-to-peer communications technology."
President Barack Obama's administration is debating ways to deal with Web-based services not covered by traditional wiretap laws, including incentives for companies to build in surveillance capabilities, said Valerie Caproni, general counsel at the FBI.
The FBI is concerned that law enforcement investigations are being compromised by the lack of wiretap capability on some Web-based services and encrypted mobile telephone traffic.
"We are not looking for any new authority," Caproni added. "We are concerned we are losing ground in actually being able to gather the information we are authorized to have."
According to FBI, surveillance mechanisms built into communications infrastructure threaten to create serious vulnerabilities for national security and present threats to innovation."
The FBI is concerned about privacy and the Internet's security, but also about criminals running loose because the agency can't execute a wiretap. "That criminal may be a massive drug dealer, an arms trafficker, a child pornographer or a child molester. We need the actual ability to conduct the wiretaps so we can keep the streets safe,” Caproni said.
The FBI also said today that it's not calling for restrictions on encryption without back doors for law enforcement.
"No one's suggesting that Congress should re-enter the encryption battles of the late 1990s," Caproni said. There's no need to "talk about encryption keys, escrowed keys, and the like--that's not what this is all about."
Instead, she said, discussions should focus on requiring that communication providers and Web sites have legally mandated procedures to divulge unencrypted data in their possession.
Since the companies aren't required to build in back doors in advance, or because technology doesn't permit it, the police can’t successfully undertake the task of court-authorized eavesdropping.
According to FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni, “Any solution should include a way for police armed with wiretap orders to conduct surveillance of Web-based e-mail, social networking sites, and peer-to-peer communications technology."
President Barack Obama's administration is debating ways to deal with Web-based services not covered by traditional wiretap laws, including incentives for companies to build in surveillance capabilities, said Valerie Caproni, general counsel at the FBI.
The FBI is concerned that law enforcement investigations are being compromised by the lack of wiretap capability on some Web-based services and encrypted mobile telephone traffic.
"We are not looking for any new authority," Caproni added. "We are concerned we are losing ground in actually being able to gather the information we are authorized to have."
According to FBI, surveillance mechanisms built into communications infrastructure threaten to create serious vulnerabilities for national security and present threats to innovation."
The FBI is concerned about privacy and the Internet's security, but also about criminals running loose because the agency can't execute a wiretap. "That criminal may be a massive drug dealer, an arms trafficker, a child pornographer or a child molester. We need the actual ability to conduct the wiretaps so we can keep the streets safe,” Caproni said.
The FBI also said today that it's not calling for restrictions on encryption without back doors for law enforcement.
"No one's suggesting that Congress should re-enter the encryption battles of the late 1990s," Caproni said. There's no need to "talk about encryption keys, escrowed keys, and the like--that's not what this is all about."
Instead, she said, discussions should focus on requiring that communication providers and Web sites have legally mandated procedures to divulge unencrypted data in their possession.
