Barr says the US needs encryption backdoors to prevent "going dark." Um, what?

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/post-snowden-tech-became-more-secure-but-is-govt-really-at-risk-of-going-dark/

By Sean Gallagher
Ars Technica
8/4/2019

On July 23, in a keynote address at the International Conference on Cyber 
Security at Fordham University, US Attorney General William Barr took up a 
banner that the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation have 
been waving for over a decade: the call for what former FBI director James 
Comey had referred to as a "golden key."

Citing the threat posed by violent criminals using encryption to hide their 
activities from law enforcement, Barr said that information security "should 
not come at the expense of making us more vulnerable in the real world." He 
claimed that this is what is happening today.

"Service providers, device manufacturers, and application developers are 
developing and deploying encryption that can only be decrypted by the end user 
or customer, and they are refusing to provide technology that allows for lawful 
access by law enforcement agencies in appropriate circumstances," Barr 
proclaimed.

And this, he said, was making it increasingly difficult for law enforcement to 
surveil criminal activity. This blindspot what also allowing criminals to make 
their information and communications "warrant proof... extinguishing the 
ability of law enforcement to obtain evidence essential to detecting and 
investigating crimes," and allowing "criminals to operate with impunity, hiding 
their activities under an impenetrable cloak of secrecy."

[...]



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