Schneier: terrorists will switch to more secure alternatives to avoid encryption backdoors

A study shows that if the U.S. mandates backdoors to decrypt secret messages in order to help law enforcement, there would still be hundreds of alternative encryption products made outside the reach of U.S. law that terrorists and criminals could get their hands on.

“Smart criminals and terrorists will easily be able to switch to more secure alternatives,” is the conclusion drawn by the study “A Worldwide Survey of Encryption Products”. The authors were Internet security authority Bruce Schneier of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, independent security researcher Kathleen Seidel, and Saranya Vijayakumar, a Harvard student.

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Network World Tim Greene