ACLU intends to obtain through the courts data related to the FBI's electronic devices analysis unit.
Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced their intentions to obtain through the court information regarding the hidden and relatively new ability of the FBI to break encrypted devices.
The lawsuit will seek to obtain data related to the FBI's Electronic Device Analysis Unit (EDAU) and its acquisition of software that would allow the government to unlock and decrypt information in mobile phones.
For years, the U.S. government has pressured companies like Apple to create highly volatile backdoors that would allow law enforcement to gain access to private devices such as cell phones and personal computers that serve as evidence in an investigation.
Many experts have warned for years that the FBI has gone far ahead and quietly developed its own hacking capabilities. The ACLU cited public court transcripts describing “cases where EDAU employees were able to access encrypted information from a locked iPhone [...] and even attempted to hire a computer engineer whose primary responsibilities would include performing forensic extraction and advanced data recovery on blocked and damaged devices ”.
The ACLU has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests for any DOJ and FBI documents related to EDAU and its technological ability to retrieve information from blocked electronic devices. In response, the FBI issued the so-called "Glomar Response" - a refusal to confirm or even deny that any such EDAU records ever existed.
“With its Glomar response, the federal government is sending a clear message - it seeks to keep the American public in the dark about its ability to access information stored on our personal mobile devices. Our privacy and security are at stake, ”according to the ACLU website.
__________________
Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced their intentions to obtain through the court information regarding the hidden and relatively new ability of the FBI to break encrypted devices.
The lawsuit will seek to obtain data related to the FBI's Electronic Device Analysis Unit (EDAU) and its acquisition of software that would allow the government to unlock and decrypt information in mobile phones.
For years, the U.S. government has pressured companies like Apple to create highly volatile backdoors that would allow law enforcement to gain access to private devices such as cell phones and personal computers that serve as evidence in an investigation.
Many experts have warned for years that the FBI has gone far ahead and quietly developed its own hacking capabilities. The ACLU cited public court transcripts describing “cases where EDAU employees were able to access encrypted information from a locked iPhone [...] and even attempted to hire a computer engineer whose primary responsibilities would include performing forensic extraction and advanced data recovery on blocked and damaged devices ”.
The ACLU has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests for any DOJ and FBI documents related to EDAU and its technological ability to retrieve information from blocked electronic devices. In response, the FBI issued the so-called "Glomar Response" - a refusal to confirm or even deny that any such EDAU records ever existed.
“With its Glomar response, the federal government is sending a clear message - it seeks to keep the American public in the dark about its ability to access information stored on our personal mobile devices. Our privacy and security are at stake, ”according to the ACLU website.
__________________