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unusual places, and have already been used by evil developers to create
new, virulent malware. A backdoor opens for anyone with a key (or a
lockpick), not always the people you want.
Best of all, there’s scant evidence that breaking encryption would
actually prevent crime or allow law enforcement to prosecute criminals.
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concluded that breaking encryption isn’t likely to yield better results for
law enforcement.
THE CRYPTO WARS, REVISITED
The silliest part of this whole drama is that I actually intended to write
this piece months ago. Time constraints stopped me, but I wasn’t
worried, because I knew it would come up again. It always does. The
arguments to weaken encryption are always the same, and the
arguments against it haven’t changed either.
Those with long memories will recall the Crypto Wars of the 1990s and
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that encryption systems that were strong enough to resist attacks by
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That’s idiotic.
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Ashton Carter said in 2016 that the nation and the Department of
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infamous (and itself harebrained) Clipper Chip, changed his stance on
encryption; he now believes that strong encryption is invaluable to the
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the right to privacy.
LET MATH BE MATH
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us humans, and it’s entirely predictable and logical, unlike our laws. If
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