WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would like to expand existing law to force US companies to provide access to their customers’ encrypted data, FBI Counterterrorism Division Assistant Director Michael Steinbach told reporters on Wednesday.
“We are not asking for something that does not already exist,” Steinbach said of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). “It is the same thing we have had in place, we are just asking now to expand it.”
CALEA mandated telecommunications companies to design and modify their equipment and services in a way that ensures law enforcement can conduct court mandated surveillance, according to the US Federal Communications Commission.
Steinbach explained law enforcement access to encrypted data “is not unprecedented.” He added, “It is the same thing that was in place with the law [CALEA].”
The FBI has repeatedly raised concerns about terrorists, criminal networks and others exploiting encryption technologies to threaten US national security.
Under CALEA, telecommunications carriers have no responsibility to either decrypt or ensure the government’s ability to decrypt any secured communications by a customer.
US technology and security firms have worked to improve data encryption following the 2013 release of classified documents by National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden.
According to the leaked NSA documents, US intelligence agencies worked for more than a decade the covertly influence international encryption standards. The NSA also worked with large technology companies to introduce vulnerabilities into product designs, that could be exploited by US intelligence and law enforcement.
