“The FBI’s initial assessment is that programming errors resulted in significant over-counting of mobile devices reported,’’ the FBI said in a statement Tuesday. The bureau said the problem stemmed from the use of three distinct databases that led to repeated counting of phones. Privacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that encryption prevents crime by protecting people’s data from hackers. The FBI’s conduct in the San Bernardino case also called into question the accuracy of officials’ statements on the encryption issue. Such a giant leap in locked phones could not be explained by changes in technology or criminal behavior, those critics reasoned.

Source: Washington Post May 22, 2018 23:14 UTC