FBI can't unlock 13% of password-protected phones it seized, official says

USA Today: WASHINGTON — The FBI cannot unlock 13% of the password-protected cellphones it has seized as evidence in the past six months, a top bureau official told a House panel Tuesday.

About 30% of the 3,000 phones that the FBI has seized since Oct. 1 require passwords to open, said Amy Hess, executive assistant director of the FBI's science and technology branch. The FBI was able to unlock most of those phones, but the number that they can't get into is growing as tech companies build devices with stronger data encryption, Hess said. She also said passwords are becoming longer and more difficult to guess, even with special computer programs designed to crack them.

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