The Crypto Wars Come to San Bernardino

Attacks in Paris and California have renewed calls for government access to encrypted communications.

By Elias Groll, published in the Foreign Policy December 8, 2015

First, Paris. Now, San Bernardino. In the span of less than a month, gunmen inspired by or with links to the Islamic State have emerged from the shadows to surprise Western intelligence agencies and carry out mass slaughter. In the aftermath of each attack, political leaders have seized upon the role of the Internet and encrypted communication tools — both in spreading the Islamic State’s ideology and allowing plots to be developed under cover.

U.S. officials have repeatedly warned in recent months that the growing availability of encrypted communications has made it more difficult to detect and thwart terrorist attacks. And in a prime-time address Sunday, President Barack Obama said he will urge “high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice.”

“As the Internet erases the distance between countries, we see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people like the Boston Marathon bombers and the San Bernardino killers,” Obama said.

In the case of the 2013 attack at the marathon’s finish line, which killed three and injured more than 250, prosecutors said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev embraced a radical, violent interpretation of Islam in part by consuming online the sermons of radical preachers, including those of American-born Anwar al-Awlaki.

In San Bernardino, it remains unclear how the attackers, Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, a married couple, adopted a violent outlook or whether encrypted communication allowed them to evade U.S. law enforcement. U.S. officials have said they have no evidence the shooters communicated with an international terrorist group. Malik declared her allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook.

U.S. investigators are examining whether Malik was what the Wall Street Journal described as the “driving force” behind the shootings. It remains unclear at what point in her life she embraced a violent ideology and whether she did so online through the voluminous propaganda campaign of the Islamic State. The group has welcomed the attack and claimed responsibility for it.

“Both subjects were radicalized and have been for quite some time,” David Bowdich, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, told reporters Monday. “How did that happen and by whom and where did that happen? I will tell you right now, we don’t know those answers at this point”... Read more.