Tag Archive for: backdoors

Acts of terrorism could push Congress toward encryption backdoors in 2016

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Despite the risks to online commerce, international high-tech sales, security of trade secrets and the fact that it won’t actually make encryption useless to criminals, decryption backdoors to let law enforcement access encrypted communications could become U.S. law in 2016 – and a nightmare to enterprises – especially if terrorists succeed in carrying out major acts of violence.

So far the arguments against such a law have prevailed, but that could change if public opinion turns strongly in favor of it, which is more likely in the wake of events that generate fear.

+More on Network World: 20 years ago: Hot sci/tech images from 1995 | Read all the stories that predict what is to come in 2016 +

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Network World Tim Greene

Obama opts for “good cop” approach with encryption backdoors

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The Obama administration won’t seek legislation to force technology companies to decrypt communications, FBI Director James Comey told Congress in a public hearing on Thursday.
Naked Security – Sophos

Former NSA chief undercuts FBI’s desire for encryption backdoors

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The former head of the NSA says the U.S. is better served by strong encryption than it would be by encryption schemes with backdoors that allow law enforcement to decrypt the content of communications, according to reports, and he should know.

Under Michael Hayden’s watch as director of the NSA, the agency exploited back doors into phone switches in Greece in order to spy on calls including those made by the Greek prime minister and the mayor of Athens.

The legal-intercept capabilities baked into the switches are supposed to be used only under strict legal supervision, but they can be abused. According to a story by James Bamford for The Intercept, documents stolen by Edward Snowden help show that the NSA took unauthorized advantage of legal-intercept backdoors in the Greek phone system to eavesdrop on what calling parties assumed would be private communications.

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Network World Tim Greene

Obama advisors: Encryption backdoors would hurt cybersecurity, net infrastructure vendors

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Making encryption backdoors available to law enforcement would be bad for cybersecurity in general and hurt vendors that make encryption gear, a presidential advisory group says.

While the FBI argues that it needs legislation to require access points into encryption platforms, the National Security Council is preparing to tell President Obama that the downsides include weakening the privacy of Internet communications, according to a draft NSC report obtained by the Washington Post.

“[B]ecause any access point to encrypted data increases risk, if government efforts to secure access are successful, this approach would reduce cybersecurity,” the document says.

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Network World Tim Greene