House Judiciary Commission Findings on Encryption (@SeanVitka)
The now-public findings of the Encryption Working Group rightly notes that efforts to mandate companies build workarounds to their otherwise strong encryption are not in the national interest.
The findings are a stark departure from what some in Congress were pushing earlier this year in the wake of the San Bernardino shooter case, in which the FBI tried to force Apple to create a custom version of iOS that would allow the Bureau to bypass the device’s security.
This passage is, I think, the heart of the whole issue (bold emphasis is mine):
But [Joe Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts and Adam Kinzinger (R) of Illinois] cannot plausibly claim to be focused on the country’s security while failing to oppose backdoors. If they were committed to security in any serious capacity, they would have concluded at least what the Encryption Working Group and what every other expert has been saying for decades: You cannot have an encryption backdoor that isn’t also a vulnerability. Their abstention and voting records reveal they either don’t understand that or they don’t care – and in any event that they definitely do not support a ban on backdoors in the technology that keeps Americans safe.
Other than this Congressional group going on the record ascertaining the fundamental truism about encryption, there is nothing new here. Unfortunately, the debate will continue despite these findings. The incoming Trump administration has been open about its disdain for encryption, with comments not only from Trump himself supporting this, but also from several of his appointments for cabinet and advisor positions.
Once again, for reference…
Categories Politics Technology Encryption