How the Government Is Waging Crypto War 2.0

"The FBI’s call for technology companies to be forced to include backdoor access into their encrypted devices is highly reminiscent of the NSA’s development of the Clipper chip in 1993, which was used to encrypt phone communications while providing a backdoor for government intelligence agencies. This was justified through the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) which required telecom operators to support wiretap capabilities in their products.

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This past year has seen full-disk encryption come standard on iOS 8 and Android M phones, as well as end-to-end encryption implemented on the two most popular messaging apps in the world, WhatsApp and iMessenger.

Cardozo thinks the three letter agencies (CIA, FBI and NSA) are going to try to get rid of these features as defaults on the product, rather than trying to outlaw encryption outright like they did in the 1990s. Indeed, nearly identical lawsuits in California and New York earlier this year have already tried to make this happen.

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Another tactic is simply to put pressure on companies in an extralegal fashion—Cardozo said he has worked with companies who have received visits from the FBI during which the agents asked them to start providing backdoor capabilities. When the companies refuse, the agents would tell the company they were going to have “blood on their hands” and show them photos of terrorists using their products.

See the full article here:

https://motherboard.vice.com/read/encryption-debate-the-end-of-end-to-end