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NSA Chief: Arguing Against Encryption Is a Waste of Time (theintercept.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the next-argument-please dept.

An anonymous reader writes: On Thursday, NSA director Mike Rogers said, "encryption is foundational to the future." He added that it was a waste of time to argue that encryption is bad or that we ought to do away with it. Rogers is taking a stance in opposition to many other government officials, like FBI director James Comey. Rogers further said that neither security nor privacy should be the imperative that drives everything else. He said, "We've got to meet these two imperatives. We've got some challenging times ahead of us, folks."

9 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Translation by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The NSA has backdoors.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:Translation by sinij · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The NSA has backdoors.

      Cloak and dagger backdoor is preferable to legislated backdoor. With NSA-style backdoors you could find and fix them and having them is not certainty. Also, totalitarian government won't have much success demanding NSA allow them to use these.

      While I'd rather not have any backdoors, to choose between two evils I'd take my chances with NSA.

    2. Re:Translation by shawn2772 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The NSA has backdoors.

      Some, I'm sure. But the NSA cannot count on always having back doors, and this argument wouldn't make sense from that perspective unless Rogers could be certain that it always will.

      No, hard as it may be to believe, I think the real situation here is that the NSA director is not an idiot, and does actually care at least a little about the "secure US communications" part of the NSA's two-fold mission. He realizes that strong encryption is absolutely essential to the future, even though it creates some obstacles for the "break everyone else's communications" side of the NSA's mission.

      Though I also have no doubt that the obstacles it creates aren't nearly as large as we'd all like them to be, because there will always be lots of vulnerabilities.

    3. Re:Translation by myowntrueself · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hey you fucking idiot.

      Enemies are different than citizens.

      You clearly don't work for a government

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  2. Re:Job is forfeit. by bluelip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nah, they just have all methods of encryption broken.

    --

    Yep, I never spell check.
    More incorrect spellings can be found he
  3. Refreshing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's refreshing to hear someone address this issue with a little sanity. However, I still don't trust any three letter agency.

  4. Re:Job is forfeit. by Ravaldy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Neither, he's a smart individual that took the time to look at the landscape and him speaking about it in the public tells me he's already convinced the people above him.

  5. "We have some challenging times ahead of us" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bullshit. Crime rates have never been lower. The chance of being injured or killed by terrorism is vanishingly small and comparable to a lightning strike. The advantages of secure communication far outweigh any potential aid it gives to criminals. The only challenge here: a government organisation trying desperately to preserve itself and its budget in the face of increasing scruitny and irrelevance.

  6. Re:Please ignore what they say. by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Insightful
    So true. Guy stands up and says something we agree with and we all yell at him "He must be UP TO SOMETHING!"

    People need to shut up and say thank you when you win - even if it's just a small battle of your opponent saying "It's not worth arguing against them"

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com