The (Revived) Encryption War Continues
The Latest:
As Encryption Spreads, U.S. Grapple with Clash between Privacy, Security – Ellen Nakashima and Barton Gellman writing in The Washington Post reveal that federal officials are considering a variety of means of ensuring access to encrypted communications, including split key approaches, as well as, in certain circumstances, mirror accounts. Under the split key approach (difficult from an engineering and cryptography standpoint), a technology company creates a decryption key that is split into pieces, with different pieces held by different parties, and all of the pieces are needed for decryption. But even aside from the question of trust in the holders of the key parts, risk of disclosure of the decrypted information and the like, as security expert/researcher, Dino A. Dai Zovi (@dinodaizovi) tweeted: “The big question of the #cryptodebate isn’t whether vendors can make a decryption key for USG, but what happens when other [governments] want it too?”
How Do We Build Encryption Backdoors? – Professor Matthew Green (Johns Hopkins) analyzes the problems with building encryption backdoors, including split key approaches, at his A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering blog
You Can’t Backdoor a Platform – Jonathan Mayer at his Web Policy blog
Background – 2014-15, the Crypto Wars Return
James Comey, F.B.I. Director, Hints at Action as Cellphone Data Is Locked – The New York Times, and FBI director Attacks Tech Companies for Embracing New Modes of Encryption; James Comey says Data Encryption Could Deprive Police and Intelligence Agencies of Potentially Live-saving Information – The Guardian
Apple Will No Longer Unlock Most iPhones, iPads for Police, even with Search Warrants – The Washington Post
iPhone Encryption and the Return of the Crypto Wars – Bruce Schneier
What NSA Director Mike Rogers Doesn’t Get About Encryption – Julian Sanchez at CATO
What President Obama is getting wrong about encryption – The Washington Post
The FBI Keeps Demanding Impossible Solutions to Its Encryption Problem – MotherBoard/Vice
Background – the 1990’s (and earlier) Crypto Wars
Keeping Secrets: Four Decades Ago, University Researchers Figured out the Key to Computer Privacy, Sparking a Battle with the National Security Agency that Continues Today. – Henry Corrigan-Gibbs (Stanford Magazine)
Encryption and Globalization – a 2011 academic paper (Columbia Science and Technology Law Review, Vol. 23, 2012) by Peter Swire and Kenesa Ahmad, which includes a brief summary of the original 90’s “Crypto Wars”
Crypto Wars – Wikipedia
Hacker Lexicon: What is End-to-End Encryption – Wired
Related