Government would be barred from mandating crypto backdoors under House bill

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Thursday reintroduced legislation that would bar the government from mandating “backdoors” — configurations that enable surveillance — in commercial software and hardware products. The move is the latest salvo in a long-running legislative fight over law enforcement access to encrypted communications, and it comes after a Senate committee recently sought input from big technology firms on regulating encryption. Law enforcement officials say encryption has hampered investigations by preventing access to suspects’ communications, while cryptographers warn that weakening encryption could greatly undercut digital security for everyday people. “It is troubling that law enforcement agencies appear to be more interested in compelling U.S. companies to weaken their product security than using already available technological solutions to gain access to encrypted devices and services,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement. She introduced the bill in 2014 and has repeatedly sounded the alarm […]

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Congress wants answers on FBI’s ‘going dark’ problem in wake of DOJ IG report

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray Friday slamming the FBI’s handling of the San Bernardino shooter’s locked iPhone, adding that the bureau’s claim that it couldn’t bypass encryption on some 7,800 devices last year “seems highly questionable.” The lawmakers said a recent Justice Department inspector general report on the subject “undermines statements that the FBI made during the San Bernardino litigation and consistently since then, that only the device manufacturer could provide a solution.” The report found that some bureau officials didn’t want to find a solution because it could undercut FBI efforts to legally compel Apple to break the device’s encryption. The letter could further inflame the debate over the “going dark” issue, which posits that criminal investigations are often thwarted due to law enforcement’s inability to bypass encryption. CyberScoop recently reported that a Senate panel could be drawing up a new bill on the subject. Signatories of the letter include […]

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