Former FBI Chief Keeps Up Anti-Crypto Campaign

ganns.com writes "Former FBI director Louis Freeh is urging lawmakers to limit encryption products that don't include backdoors for government surveillance." Still urging, that is.

Comments

Re:Red Herring, and LIES

[lal]

According to Ronald Kessler, author of The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, Freeh is also responsible for the failure of the FBI to keep up with technology. At the end of Freeh's tenure, FBI agents were using 486-class computers and had to email attachments to home computers to transmit pictures. Freeh resisted upgrading the FBI mainframe infrastructure as well. He's clearly not capable of making judgments about crypto.

Re:Still urging...

[Anonymous Coward]

Investigate breaches of Federal law across multiple state jusrisdictions. Most law-enforcement agencies' right to investigate a crime, pursue a fugitive, make an arrest, carry a weapon, et c. ends at the town/county/state line. FBI jurisdiction extends across all 50 states, all other U.S. territories, and fifty-two other countries (to, of course, a limited extent).

Re:What is the deal with this guy?

[dogfart]

Or maybe he's just jealous that the NSA could crack everything and his agency never could.

I've heard that historically this has been a bone of contention. The FBI would find some criminal using a home brewed encryption scheme, give it to the NSA. The NSA folks would figure it out on their lunch hour and have a good laugh. Absolutely no comparison between FBI and NSA when it comes to crypto skill level. This is from James Bamford The Puzzle Palace, p471 in the Penguin Books paperback edition.

Can't turn back the clock. :)

[Jonny 290]

I don't give a flying fuck what Louis Freeh urges, says, mandates, preaches, or invokes. I've got PGP, GPG, and several other crypto programs, as well as the full manuals and docs burned to high-quality CD-R in triplicate, stored in three geographically diverse locations.

Try to 'urge' those out of my possession.