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The Wiretap Report 2013, http://www.uscourts.gov/Statistics/WiretapReports/wiretap-report-2013.aspx#sa5 states that the number of state wiretaps in which encryption was encountered went up from 15 taps (2012) to 51 taps (2013). It also mentions that in just 9 of the 2013-cases officials were unable to decipher the plain text of the messages. For the first time the report mentions success rates of deciphering in previous years: officials deciphered all 52 crypto intercepts.

I realize this is tapping phone lines (though 'plain text messages'?), perhaps crypto-phones are not working that well compared to TrueCrypt or other digital info encryption tools. Yet, I wonder whether there is more known about the cause of such high scores? Is it weak keys, known keys, flawed crypto?

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  • I'm pretty sure the carrier holds the keys used to encrypt the calls, so they just got the keys from the carrier and that's it.
    – user42178
    Jul 6, 2014 at 10:58
  • Thanks, that would explain the high score and that was the question. I would expect though that it would be 100% for 2013 also but it's not.
    – Dick99999
    Jul 6, 2014 at 11:53
  • Is this for wireless cellular networks or POTS?
    – forest
    Apr 7, 2019 at 5:43

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