DOJ efforts to weaken encryption place national security at risk, congressman says

Rep. Ro Khanna has one message for politicians who continue to suggest technology companies should give law enforcement agencies access to encrypted data: This is a power grab. The U.S. Department of Justice has long called for technology firms to create software that would allow law enforcement agencies to investigate suspects who use encryption to hide illegal behavior. For Khanna, a California Democrat, the tradeoff is too dangerous. Legislation that enables law enforcement to crack strong security measures in order to root out some criminals, while also but leaving other people’s communications exposed, just is not worth it, he said Wednesday during CyberTalks, a virtual event produced by CyberScoop. “What I worry about is at a time where we already have an imbalance between the power of the U.S. government and the power of corporations and the individual, is it would shift more power to the tech companies and the government,” he said. “If you […]

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Weak encryption means putting our military at risk

Last month, a brigade of U.S. soldiers deployed to the Middle East received instructions from their superiors to use two commercial encrypted messaging applications, Signal and Wickr, on their government issued cell phones. These leadership cues trickled down from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) position that strong encryption is critical to national security. While U.S. Attorney General William Barr continues to push for a broad mandate for backdoors for law enforcement, those on the front lines of protecting America have notably decided on a different approach. Simply put, weakening encryption means putting our military service members at risk. In a recent letter to Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., DoD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy made clear that the use of encryption to protect the mobile devices of our service members and their stored data is an “imperative.” Deasy makes clear that the use of commercial encryption and virtual private networks (VPNs) […]

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For the Cost of Republican Tax Cuts, We Can Give Working Americans Up to $18,000 a Year

Instead of corporate tax cuts for big companies that can be used to create more robots, we could allow Americans to benefit from the wealth automation creates. Continue reading For the Cost of Republican Tax Cuts, We Can Give Working Americans Up to $18,000 a Year

For the Cost of Republican Tax Cuts, We Can Give Working Americans Up to $18,000 a Year

Instead of corporate tax cuts for big companies that can be used to create more robots, we could allow Americans to benefit from the wealth automation creates. Continue reading For the Cost of Republican Tax Cuts, We Can Give Working Americans Up to $18,000 a Year