FBI faces ‘huge problem’ as data encryption blocks access to 7000 mobile devices

The FBI has been unable to access nearly 7000 mobile devices due to encryption, says its director Christopher Wray.

The head of the bureau labelled the prevalence of data encryption a “huge, huge problem” for its investigations, with agents unable to access information on many locked devices.

Mr Wray claimed the FBI failed to gain access to over 50% of the devices it had attempted to unlock in an 11 month period.

“There's a balance that needs to be struck between encryption and the importance of giving us the tools we need to keep the public safe,” Mr Wray said at the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Sunday.

Encryption is found on many of the latest mobile phones and tablets, with user-set passwords or fingerprint scanners locking personal information away. This data is often inaccessible even to the device manufacturers.

“Encryption that frustrates forensic investigations will be a fact of life from now on for law enforcement agencies,” says Alan Woodward, computer science professor at the University of Surrey.

“Even if the equipment manufacturers didn't build in such encryption it would be possible to obtain software that encrypted data in the same way.”

In 2016 the FBI asked Apple to help them access an iPhone that had been used by San Bernadino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, but the tech company contested the court order, claiming that its staff would be unable to access the encrypted data.

The FBI later gained access to Farook’s phone through a third party firm who had discovered a way to break into the device.