Bipartisan House Group Presses FBI on San Bernardino, Encryption

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray Friday for answers on the bureau’s apparent failure to exhaust all in-house options before forcing Apple to help access a terrorist’s iPhone after a 2015 San Bernardino, California, attack (see 1803280043). Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, were among those writing. Their letter cited reports the agency claimed similar issues with accessing as many as 7,800 devices in 2017. Reports that companies like Cellebrite and Grayshift “have developed tools to cheaply unlock nearly every phone on the market, including every version of iOS, raise even more concerns that the FBI has not been forthcoming about the extent of the ‘Going Dark’ problem,” the legislators wrote. The bureau didn't comment.