The Federal Bureau of Investigation is getting fed up with trying to fight a war against terror with its hands tied behind its back.
FBI Chief James Comey told a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday that denying the agency access to encryption codes makes it easier for terrorist groups to carry out attacks – and makes it harder for law enforcement to prevent them.
“The tools we are asked to use are increasingly ineffective,” Comey said. “ISIL (another acronym for ISIS, or Da’esh) says, ‘Go kill, go kill.’ We are stopping these things so far… but it is incredibly difficult. I cannot see me stopping these indefinitely,” he said.
ISIS and other terrorist organizations are particularly adept at using social media and other electronic methods of communication in order to broadcast their intentions to their followers.
They communication further instructions via secure mobile devices that cannot be tapped by law enforcement without the use of encryption codes and other assistance from the companies who manufacture the devices.
But the companies have resisted requests to provide that assistance, claiming that allowing that access would weaken the systems and make it easier for computer hackers and other criminals to penetrate the networks.