Democratic Sen. [crscore]Dianne Feinstein[/crscore] lamented that tech companies do not have the ability to “unencrypt” the dark web, and suggested that “encryption ought to be able to be pierced.”
Wednesday, during Senate Judiciary Committee testimony by FBI Director James Comey, Feinstein said, “I suspect what happened was in the aftermath of Snowden, particularly Europe got very conservative with respect to encryption. The companies back away. Now, that’s changing with Paris and God forbid what might happen in the future. So what I’m trying to say is, I think this world is really changing in terms of people wanting the protection and wanting law enforcement, if there is conspiracy going on over the Internet, that that encryption ought to be able to be pierced.”
Asked if he agreed, Comey said, “I agree. I would very much like to get to a world where if a judge issues an order, companies are able to comply with it. Either to unlock a device, or to provide the communications between terrorists or between drug dealers or kidnappers. I very much would like to see that.”
Feinstein responded, “Good. Thank you very much.”
Earlier in the hearing, Feinstein explained, “I’m very concerned about it [the ability to unencrypt communications] because when I met with high-tech, what they told me was there are parts now when you talked to us about the dark web … that they cannot unencrypt.”
“I have real concern about that,” Feinstein argued. “I have concern about a Playstation, which my grandchildren might use and a predator getting on the other end talking to go them, and it’s all encrypted. And so I think there really is reason to have the ability, with a court order, to be able to — and if you have cause to believe that criminality may be going on to be able to get into that.”
