Paris terrorists used disposable burner phones to hide plans. No evidence of encryption.

“Everywhere they went, the attackers left behind their throwaway phones.”

Buried in the New York Times story Mark poked fun at earlier for its Crypto Panic vibe, a confirmation of sorts that there’s really no evidence the terrorists used crypto at all. There is lots of evidence they used throwaway burner phones to evade detection while planning mass murder. Again, no evidence encryption, none, period. This is significant because these attacks, and similar ones that followed, are at the core of an anti-encryption charm offensive by the FBI and Department of Justice, now targeted at Apple’s iPhone.

Ars Technica rehashes the details of the NYT piece and then puts it plainly:

Until we have stronger evidence to the contrary, it seems likely that encryption played little or no part in the Paris terrorist attacks.