Ride the Lightning

Attorney General Barr Demands Tech Firms Break Encryption: “It Can and Must Be Done”

July 30, 2019

It is frightening, to those who give a damn about privacy, that both Attorney General Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray have again taken up the call demanding that technologies provide encryption back doors.

The Register carried a post about Wray and ZDNet carried a post about Barr. The Register, being British, is fun to read. Their title was "Backdoors won't weaken your encryption, wails FBI boss. And he's right. They won't – they'll fscking (sic) torpedo it." And their (cough, cough) infinite respect for Wray was indicated in their subhead: "Give it a Wray, give it a Wray, give it a Wray now: Big Chris steps in to defend blowing a hole in personal crypto."

There's certainly no way you can mistake the position of The Register on this issue!

Wray sings the old songs lamenting that criminals are "going dark" and that the government can't do its job without backdoors. Whatever did they do before computers and smartphones?

He also says the government isn't trying to weaken cybersecurity. As we all know, that is pure BS. Encryption backdoors invariably get out and then not only does the government have access to our data (and we all know how much we trust the government), but so do the bad guys.

Barr talked about the "huge costs on society" of "warrant-proof encryption." But what about the privacy costs of American citizens? The government has consistently earned the distrust of its citizens. Moreover, anything that weakens encryption can and will be exploited by the very criminals the government claims it is going after.

Barr also talked about proactive surveillance to prevent crime. That's just great – now the government is going to decide who might commit a crime and conduct surveillance?

Apple, Microsoft and Google have all stood fast against this foolishness. Let's hope they continue to do so!

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225|Fairfax, VA 22030
Email: Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
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