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from the it-will-happen-when-we-are-not-looking dept.
The Intercept reports on an email obtained by The Washington Post: Top [Intelligence] Lawyer Says Terror Attack Would Help Push for Anti-Encryption Legislation:
The intelligence community's top lawyer, Robert S. Litt, told colleagues in an August email obtained by the Washington Post that Congressional support for anti-encryption legislation "could turn in the event of a terrorist attack or criminal event where strong encryption can be shown to have hindered law enforcement." So he advised "keeping our options open for such a situation."
[...] A senior official granted anonymity by the Post acknowledged that the law enforcement argument is "just not carrying the day." He told the Post reporters: "People are still not persuaded this is a problem. People think we have not made the case. We do not have the perfect example where you have the dead child or a terrorist act to point to, and that's what people seem to claim you have to have."
On Tuesday, Amy Hess, a top FBI official, told reporters that the bureau has "done a really bad job collecting empirical data" on the encryption problem. FBI Director James Comey has attempted to provide examples of how law enforcement is "going dark," but none have checked out. Only Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has been able to provide an example of encrypted technology maybe blocking one possible lead in a murder investigation.
Litt was commenting on a draft options paper from the National Security Council that includes three proposals for the Obama Administration: oppose compulsory backdoor legislation and come out in favor of encryption, defer any decisions until after an open consultation, or do nothing. No option calling for backdoors was included.
In other news, the EFF has issued its first certificate as part of the Let's Encrypt initiative. Microsoft researchers have published a paper and code (MIT license) for FourQ, a new and faster elliptic curve cryptography implementation. Cryptome's John Young has announced that some of his public PGP keys have been compromised.
Related:
June 7: FBI Official: "Build Technological Solutions to Prevent Encryption Above All Else"
July 30: Ex-Intelligence Officials Support Encryption in Editorial
September 10: Justice Department Considered Suing Apple Over iMessage Encryption
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2015, @05:02AM
This message is encrypted! in transit.. Strong encryption is great! for nothing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2015, @05:12AM
It forces the NSA to store the data in the hopes that it may eventually be decrypted.
I guess in this case they can decrypt it in seconds by visiting the website, but they do not know that until they check.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2015, @08:13AM
Also, assume you write something, but then in preview you decide that you'd rather not post it. With encrypted transmission the NSA can only ever see your non-posted message in encrypted form (unless they have a backdoor to SN).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 18 2015, @08:33PM
The government has absolutely no constitutional authority to restrict cryptography. Not that that will stop them. Not that our courts will necessarily stop them, either, since many judges seem to be extremely authoritarian and treacherous.