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Non-US Encryption Is 'Theoretical', Claims CIA Chief In Backdoor Debate (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the spymaster dept.

Iain Thomson, writing for The Register: CIA director John Brennan told U.S. senators they shouldn't worry about mandatory encryption backdoors hurting American businesses. And that's because, according to Brennan, there's no one else for people to turn to: if they don't want to use U.S.-based technology because it's been forced to use weakened cryptography, they'll be out of luck because non-American solutions are simply "theoretical." Thus, the choice is American-built-and-backdoored or nothing, apparently. The spymaster made the remarks at a congressional hearing on Thursday after Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) questioned the CIA's support for weakening cryptography to allow g-men to peek at people's private communications and data. Brennan said this was needed to counter the ability of terrorists to coordinate their actions using encrypted communications. The director denied that forcing American companies to backdoor their security systems would cause any commercial problems.

5 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. American Companies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    LOL, how quaint. As if a company belongs to a particular nation state. Freemasons 2016, huyah!

    Sir Bush, president and knighted...

  2. Jobs Creator by archatheist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Glad to see that this fellow has figured out how to create new technology jobs in foreign countries. I didn't realize that was his job, but kudos nevertheless.

    --
    "No sane man will dance." -- Marcus Tullius Cicero
  3. Countries outside the US are only theoretical by presidenteloco · · Score: 3, Funny

    Would be only a slight generalization of his view point.

    A lot of people think this is how Americans think about the rest of the world.

    We've heard it's out there, but it doesn't matter very much, as long as they have a McDonalds, a 7-11, and a Starbucks.

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  4. No, he's right by LichtSpektren · · Score: 4, Funny

    I took a trip to Europe last week. I tried using GPG but it told me that it won't encrypt anything because I'm not in the USA. Then I tried VeraCrypt but it made my hard drive fizzle out.

  5. Re:Can't decide by jcr · · Score: 1, Funny

    I can't decide if Brennan is stupid, or if he thinks everyone else is stupid.

    These are not mutually exclusive.

    Idiots are often shockingly arrogant.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."