Lawmakers Want Encryption Commission NSA Director Calls Debate a Waste of Time

Governments increasingly mistrusted privacy concerns never been higher WASHINGTON D.C. (Texas Insider Report)  The tools that terrorists and criminals are using to hide their nefarious activities are the same ones that everyday Americans rely on to safely shop online communicate with friends and family and run their businesses. As a result digital innovations present us with a paradox. We are no longer simply weighing the costs and benefits of privacy vs. security but rather security vs. security said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and House Homeland Security chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) recently.  McCaul and Warner are working to address the issue which McCaul says is one of the greatest challenges to law enforcement in his lifetime. The director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Adm. Mike Rogers also recently expressing his position on the debate over whether to regulate encryption saying:

Encryption is foundational to the future. Spending time arguing ... saying encryption is bad and we ought to do away with it thats a waste of time to me.

What we need to ask ourselves is given that foundation whats the best way for us to deal with it?   

The language is the strongest National Security Agency (NSA) director Rogers (left) has used on the matter. In September he told Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) during a congressional hearing that any legislation to weaken encryption could create more opportunities for malicious hackers or foreign hackers to get access to the keys. It also makes him the second person in his position to say as much. Retired Gen. Michael Hayden who also led the NSA has called end-to-end encryption ... good for America and opposed laws to weaken it. Some members of Congress have proposed laws to regulate the internet or cellphone encryption products that are offered by U.S. companies asserting that it could help prevent terrorists from communicating in secret. But those laws amongst other Constitutional Rights concerns would not touch encryption products developed in other countries or by terrorists themselves.  As a result the national security community has voiced increasing skepticism about the value any law could provide.

We have a very interesting confluence of events coming together for us as a society and as a world right now Rogers says. Technology is creating capabilities that have only been a dream for most of us as a society. It has revolutionized our world in a way that most of us dont even recognize. At the same time that technology also represents a potential vulnerability. There are people out there who exploit that vulnerability some for very good reasons others for not so good reasons.  Thats not going to go away. We have got to figure out how were going to deal with that ... in a context in which the government is increasingly mistrusted and privacy concerns have never been higher he added.

Meanwhile a bipartisan pair of lawmakers are nearly ready to introduce legislation that would create a Congressional Commission on encryption. The idea of having a debate about a backdoor into encryption could have happened fifteen years ago but now the horse is out of the barn. I dont believe theres a single silver bullet in a legislative way said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) recently. Warner is working to address the massive issues surrounding surveillance and encryption with the Houses Homeland Security chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) who has called the issue one of the greatest challenges to law enforcement in his lifetime. McCaul has said the Digital Security Commission he is seeking to propose with Warner would set a tight time frame to provide Congress with recommendations -- all within an environment that he said poses an urgent and I think very challenging threat to our national security. Were trying to get to a place where we can get to a solution McCaul said though understandably unable to provide a timeline. In November McCaul called encryption technology our national securitys biggest threat today and he has suggested it may have contributed to recent terrorist attacks carried out around the globe. Warner disagrees however saying a backdoor into encryption is not likely. A backdoor refers to the idea that companies should keep encryption keys on hand to allow them to access data held by their customers in the event that federal authorities request it. Those who oppose such an approach point out that plenty of encryption technology exists outside of Americas borders beyond the purview of regulators in Washington. In December McCaul & Warner penned an editorial entitled How to Unite Privacy & Security Before the Next Terrorist Attack that suggested an evolving perspective or at least a change in rhetoric. To date officials have pointed to just one terrorist who may have used encryption to nefarious ends. That was a perpetrator in a May attack in Garland Texas who exchanged 109 encrypted text messages with someone overseas prior to the attack against an Everybody Draw Mohammad Day exhibition. Lawmakers have nonetheless worried that unbreakable end-to-end encryption technology used in popular applications like Apples iMessage and Facebooks Whatsapp could be used for malevolent purposes in the future. Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (right D-CA) have said they plan to introduce their own bipartisan legislation effectively to ban end-to-end encryption. Yet with the landscape evolving rapidly in terms of both technology and terrorism it remains to be seen how the regulatory effort will play out. Earlier this month counterterrorism analysts with the Ghost Security Group reported discovering that elements within the Islamic State appeared to have developed their own rudimentary application for sending encrypted text messages. That development could substantially diminish the relevance of any regulatory solutions being sought by lawmakers.