Going Dark: The Era of Law Enforcement Hacking
Original: Going Dark, and the era of law enforcement hacking
Why This Matters
The shift from wiretapping to device hacking redefines the legal and technical boundaries of government surveillance globally.
Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matthew Green argues in an August 2026 blog post that widespread strong encryption is pushing law enforcement toward active device hacking as wiretap-era surveillance becomes obsolete, marking a fundamental shift in digital investigation methods.
Writing from the Usenix Security conference in Baltimore, cryptography professor Matthew Green of Johns Hopkins University argues that the long-debated 'Going Dark' problem — where end-to-end encryption prevents law enforcement from intercepting communications — is reaching a tipping point. Green contends that as encryption becomes ubiquitous across messaging platforms and devices, traditional wiretap-style surveillance is no longer viable. In response, law enforcement agencies are increasingly turning to offensive hacking techniques: remotely compromising target devices to extract data before it is encrypted or after it is decrypted. Green, who has designed cryptographic systems for wireless networks, payment systems, and digital content protection, frames this shift as a structural change in how governments conduct surveillance — moving from passive interception to active exploitation of vulnerabilities. The piece, approximately 1,370 words, reflects ongoing tension between strong encryption as a privacy tool and government demands for lawful access, a debate that has persisted since the Clipper Chip era of the 1990s.