FBI Director James Comey Speaks at Kenyon College
Wednesday evening finds me at Kenyon College, at a conference on privacy, where I will speaking tomorrow on a combination of this paper and some work I have been doing recently on sexual extortion online. This evening, however, FBI Director James Comey gave a keynote address that turned into one of the best engagements I have seen on the subject of encryption.
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Wednesday evening finds me at Kenyon College, at a conference on privacy, where I will speaking tomorrow on a combination of this paper and some work I have been doing recently on sexual extortion online. This evening, however, FBI Director James Comey gave a keynote address that turned into one of the best engagements I have seen on the subject of encryption. Comey's speech was excellent and interesting, but what made the event special was the unusually good questions from students and members of the local community and his engagement with them.
Here are some items of particular interest from the speech, as I reported them on Twitter:
Comey says he's confident FBI can keep secret the iPhone exploit it has bought but that discussions are ongoing on possible disclosure.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) April 7, 2016
Comey gives @twitter props for "big changes" on #isis use over the past two years.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) April 7, 2016
Comey: US law enforcement ahead of Europe on CT despite more stringent surveillance laws because of the post-9/11 reforms and changes.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) April 7, 2016
Comey in response to Hillary email question: "Let me tell you all about that investigation."
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) April 7, 2016
(He then proceeds not to comment)
Apple describes iPhone exploit as "quite perishable" even if undisclosed to Apple.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) April 7, 2016
Comey on the X Files: "That's all true."
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) April 7, 2016
Here is the video of the event, which we will podcast as well. I recommend watching it in its entirety.