Encryption & Key Management , Government , Industry Specific

FBI Encountered Encryption Hurdles in Trump Shooting Probe

A federal investigation into an assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump encountered "significant technical challenges" due to the shooter's use of encrypted devices and platforms, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.

See Also: The CIS Security Operations Center (SOC)

Wray told the House Committee on the Judiciary the bureau is "still exploiting a number of the digital devices" that Thomas Crooks may have used to help carry out the attempted assassination during a July 13 rally in support of the former president. After gaining access to his cellphone, the FBI discovered how Crooks "became very focused on President Trump and his rally" beginning in early July, according to Wray.

Google searches on Crooks' phone revealed that he researched Lee Harvey Oswald's assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, Wray told lawmakers, including a search for "how far away was Oswald from Kennedy?"

The FBI faced challenges "from an encryption perspective" when accessing Crooks' phone, according to Wray. The bureau's Pittsburgh field office reportedly tried - and failed - to initially unlock Crooks' Samsung device using a tool developed by the Israeli-based mobile forensics firm Cellebrite.

When that didn't work, federal officials at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, called Cellebrite, which shared an unreleased tool that unlocked the device in less than an hour, according to The Washington Post. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wray told lawmakers that after gaining access to his phone, the FBI discovered Crooks was using an encrypted messaging application. The bureau is now in the legal process of requesting and gaining further access to his devices, social media accounts and other digital platforms, Wray said.

The FBI and Secret Service have not yet indicated a potential motive for Crooks, a 20-year-old with a limited digital footprint who was killed by the Secret Service shortly after the assassination attempt. President Joe Biden has urged the public not to make assumptions about Crooks or his affiliations, and there are conflicting reports about his potential political views.

A debate has been brewing for more than a decade over the ability of law enforcement to access encrypted data from suspected criminals. Law enforcement sharply decried moves in 2014 by Apple and Google to enable encryption by default. End-to-end communication apps have become increasingly the norm since then, despite law enforcement decrying them as posing obstacles. Industry executives and privacy advocates have argued that encryption is a necessary prerequisite to trusting digital devices with sensitive data.