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posted by mrpg on Saturday November 11 2017, @10:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the fight-the-bad-fight dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

"We have an ongoing dialogue with a lot of tech companies in a variety of different areas," he [Rod Rosenstein] told Politico Pro. "There's some areas where they are cooperative with us. But on this particular issue of encryption, the tech companies are moving in the opposite direction. They're moving in favor of more and more warrant-proof encryption."

[...] In the interview, Rosenstein also said he "favors strong encryption."

"I favor strong encryption, because the stronger the encryption, the more secure data is against criminals who are trying to commit fraud," he explained. "And I'm in favor of that, because that means less business for us prosecuting cases of people who have stolen data and hacked into computer networks and done all sorts of damage. So I'm in favor of strong encryption."

[...] He later added that the claim that the "absolutist position" that strong encryption should be by definition, unbreakable, is "unreasonable."

[...] Rosenstein closed his interview by noting that he understands re-engineering encryption to accommodate government may make it weaker.

"And I think that's a legitimate issue that we can debate—how much risk are we willing to take in return for the reward?" he said.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/doj-strong-encryption-that-we-dont-have-access-to-is-unreasonable/


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @12:07AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @12:07AM (#595779)

    These types of arguments are well understood by the experienced among us, who often see through them as tired and absurd political bullshit. The reason they keep recurring is because those in power understand that upcoming generations of people will gradually become more accepting of their ideas and they'll eventually win. In short, they're playing the long game and based on what I've witnessed in my lifetime, my money is on them being right.

    Police and federal agencies solved crimes long before consumer crypto became a thing, they're just too fucking lazy to keep doing the work and want a magic key to everything. All the while, those same powerful forces continue to do everything they can to resist and fight government transparency so they themselves can commit crimes far worse than any group of citizens ever could -- like crashing the economy, starting wars for profit, etc.

    People think government is too difficult to understand so they don't bother trying to; then they vote uninformed or not at all. That same mentality will ensure crypto is eventually backdoored.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by stretch611 on Sunday November 12 2017, @02:50AM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Sunday November 12 2017, @02:50AM (#595829)

    Exactly...

    In the past there used to be this thing called "police work." People were paid to go and spend time investigating things. Of course now, they don't want to work, they want it handed to them on a silver platter.

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 2) by mendax on Sunday November 12 2017, @04:08AM (2 children)

    by mendax (2840) on Sunday November 12 2017, @04:08AM (#595836)

    That same mentality will ensure crypto is eventually backdoored.

    Crypto may be backdoored eventually, but the cat is out of the bag, dear friends, and there is no way it's going back in. It'll be similar to what critics of gun control say: if strong encryption is outlawed, then only outlaws will have strong encryption.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @03:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @03:34PM (#595911)

      Except that strong crypto doesn't kill anybody and it has constructive uses and it's virtually impossible to trace.

      And the fact that we'd be right.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2017, @01:19AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2017, @01:19AM (#596030)

      and in effect: Outlaws will be the only ones with freedom..