James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, said that Americans should not expect to live in complete privacy. He stated that ‘absolute privacy’ was a comfort that Americans could no longer enjoy. Mr. Comey passed these sentiments during his keynote address at a Cybersecurity conference at Boston College. “Even our memories aren’t private,” he said. “Any of us can be compelled to say what we saw. In appropriate circumstances, a judge can compel any of us to testify in court on those private communications. There is no place in America outside of judicial reach.”
The comments he made were less than 24 hours after WikiLeaks released files from the CIA that show its hacking scope. WikiLeaks claimed that the information it released was the “entire hacking scope of the CIA.” It revealed that the CIA could hack smart TVs, smartphones, and even cars.
The Director went on to say that the government could, in matters regarding law enforcement, invade Americans’ privacy. “All of us have a reasonable expectation of privacy in our homes, in our cars, and in our devices. But it also means with good reason, in court, the government through law enforcement can invade our private spaces,” he said.
Further, these comments come after the FBI began an investigation as to who could have leaked the files from the CIA to the WikiLeaks website that champions non-secrecy within the government. The Bureau plans to undertake some forensic work so as to narrow down its case of suspects associated with the leak. Further, it targets individuals with a higher clearance level as they would have easier access to the information. Deeper investigations on individuals within the CIA who have a higher clearance is also pegged on the fact that the most valuable of the information leaked was only available to higher-ranking agency members.
The occurrence of the event continues shock waves through the public as it dawns on them that their private lives are not as private as they thought them to be. Additionally, suspicion has run through the entire agency’s network in regards to who the mole could be. Analysis has shown that the availability of the information through a leak means that either the preventive or detective controls of the agency were broken. This means that either there were too many people with access to the information or those with access to it were not being regularly recorded and analyzed.
“The cyber threats we face are enormous. I don’t know if we can stay ahead of them. And I think to say otherwise would be hubris,” he said.
Mr. Comey also said that the FBI would be looking into the challenges encryption poses. He added that a balance between the public’s privacy and the Bureau’s legal access to information should be struck. He also cited FBI’s plans to hire more talented computer professionals who would instead end up working for tech giants Apple or Google.
Notably, the Director did not reference the information breach to the wire-tapping reports that President Trump talked about. However, he did add that he planned to work through his ten-year term despite the controversy.
