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

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2984574/security/obama-advisors-encryption-backdoors-would-hurt-cybersecurity-net-infrastructure-vendors.html

By Tim Greene
Network World
Sep 16, 2015

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.

At the same time, laws forcing vendors to build in encryption keys for 
police use would create a thicket of problems for vendors such as losing 
buyers in other countries that don’t want their communications hackable by 
U.S. law enforcement. If other countries enacted similar laws, though, 
that might ease the burden.

[...]

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