President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday evening. While Comey's full legacy remains to be seen, we know one thing for sure: He was the most outspoken enemy of public access to strong encryption in the United States intelligence community.
Comey's stance on encryption was that it allowed bad guys to "go dark"—making it impossible for law enforcement to access their data during investigations. This isn't rare in the intelligence community and aligns closely with Trump's limited public discussion of the issue (Trump suggested Americans boycott Apple for not helping the FBI break into an iPhone belonging to the terrorist who committed the San Bernardino attack in 2014).
We don't yet know who will replace Comey, and whoever does will likely also want the ability for the FBI and other intelligence agencies to obtain as much information as possible for its investigations.Continue reading on Motherboard.
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