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

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."

Comments

Translation

[NotDrWho]

The NSA has backdoors.

Re:Translation

[sinij]

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.

Re:Translation

[shawn2772]

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.

Re:Translation

[myowntrueself]

Hey you fucking idiot.

Enemies are different than citizens.

You clearly don't work for a government

Re:Job is forfeit.

[bluelip]

Nah, they just have all methods of encryption broken.

Refreshing

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Reverse psychology

[Nidi62]

I see what he did there. Because so many people are speaking out against everything the NSA is doing, he's trying to trick us. He knows if he comes out and says encryption is good, everyone else will shout back "no, we don't need encryption!". This will then allow the NSA to say "Ok, we will listen to you, no encryption for anyone!".

He's a genius, he's pulling the classic Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck Hunting Season trick on us.

Re:Job is forfeit.

[Ravaldy]

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.

"We have some challenging times ahead of us"

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Please ignore what they say.

[gurps_npc]

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"

Re:Job is forfeit.

[Hognoxious]

Could be a good time to invest in companies that make $5 wrenches.

Common sense from a surprising direction

[kheldan]

Someone like that is the last person I'd expect to bust out with a public statement like that, but at least on the surface it makes me feel a little better that not everyone in the government is as dumb as a doorknob.