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

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.

Comments

Lies from Spies

[schneidafunk]

Well of course he's going to say this nonsense, no surprise there. What is surprising is hearing about it from a british newspaper without a bleep in U.S. news. I imagine apple, microsoft, google and the likes will have a response soon.

Re:Lies from Spies

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Seriously why?

I find that the Brits generally do a better job covering the US than the US news does.

Jobs Creator

[archatheist]

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.

Re:Jobs Creator

[PCM2]

What's the saying? "When strong crypto is outlawed in the US, only non-US companies will have strong crypto"?

Good thing all mathematicians are American then

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> (for crypto) there's no one else for people to turn to (mofos)

Well, it's a good thing that all mathematicians have always been and will always be American then.

The "response" should be an indictment.

[mrchaotica]

Under 18 U.S.C. ss. 1001, lying to Congress is offense punishable by up to five years in prison (or eight if the lie is terrorism-related). The correct "response" to John Brennon's blatant, politically motivated, criminal lie is to indict him, convict him, and send him to Federal prison where totalitarian freedom-hating enemies of the American public like him belong.

Re:The "response" should be an indictment.

[NatasRevol]

In theory, yes.

In practice, not a fucking chance.

Re:The "response" should be an indictment.

[Immerman]

O course not. They're exempt under the thoroughly time-tested doctrine of "we have wealth and power, so the law doesn't apply to us unless we piss off someone even wealthier and more powerful"

Re:The "response" should be an indictment.

[mrchaotica]

The two Senators from my state plus Ron Wyden got emails from me on this issue before I posted on Slashdot. What did you do about it, mister shit-talking anonymous coward?

Re:Dumfounded at the ignorance

[pushing-robot]

When it comes to intelligence agencies, never attribute to ignorance that which can adequately be explained by malice.

Isn't GnuPG German?

[HawkinsD]

Hold up there a minute, Mr SpyMaster. I think GnuPG (open-source implementation of PGP) is German. Or at least: " g10code GmbH, the legal entity employing some of the GnuPG hackers" is German.

My company has been using GnuPG for ten years.

See https://gnupg.org/ .

Can't decide

[fyngyrz]

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

I readily admit this is not an uncommon reaction of mine when I read of the things presented by elected and appointed officials. The US government is a madhouse.

Re:Can't decide

[Jawnn]

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

Judging by the universal cringe displayed by all the analysts and technicians who an actual understanding of crypto, I'd go with "a little of both". I just can't believe he's so clueless as to not understand that math doesn't recognize lines on a map, nor can I quite believe he didn't expect to get called out on his bullshit. Either way, it was a dumbass thing to say.

Re:Can't decide

[bluefoxlucid]

If he's incompetent, the President should dismiss him from his post. (Executive)

If he's lying, Congress can impeach him.

Being so severely wrong so often is hazardous to your health.

Re:Can't decide

[Cro Magnon]

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

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Re:Can't decide

[whoever57]

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

He thinks enough people are stupid, and, unfortunately, he isn't wrong about that.

Re:Can't decide

[cayenne8]

I just can't believe he's so clueless as to not understand that math doesn't recognize lines on a map, nor can I quite believe he didn't expect to get called out on his bullshit.

Well, it isn't HIS cluelessness that is the problem here..is the his audience...the US Senators/CongressCritters that he speaks to in these hearings.

See, they are the ones that pass the laws that could mandate weakening software and forcing backdoors.

He may know perfectly well that this is a false and stupid thing to say, but it IS something the TLA's want badly...so, he tells them this and they think that it won't cause harm to US businesses, and they have, instead, just helped to fight the terrorists...and have their constituents be happy about this.

It is the ignorance of the lawmakers that you have to worry about.....and unfortunately they're getting their information from a guy like this, that wants what he wants, no matter the cost to business or the constitution.

Re:Can't decide

[Anonymous Coward]

I can understand how you'd make that mistake, but he's not clueless. It's much worse than that.

He's a man who knows that no one can challenge the power that he's amassed for himself, because the establishment is on his side. Surveillance is just a fact of life now, some people aren't going to give up their Facebook accounts until they die and he's grinning like the shit-eater he really is, because he's getting paid to take away the same freedoms they claimed they were "defending" after September 11th happened. People are legally required to pay money out of pocket straight into the hands of the same people who are supressing their rights to privacy and free speech.

If you knew that you were taken care of for life and there were no consequences to anything you did, no matter how horrendous, how would you act? These are the same people that had pictures of their torture at Abu Ghraib published around the world, a thousand-plus-page report on their methods published around the world and what did people do? Fuck all nothing, that's what. Brennan has that grin because he knows nobody is challenging him any time soon, period.

Re:Can't decide

[compro01]

Not sure where you're getting Sweden from, as Daemen and Rijmen are from Belgium and work at a Belgian university.

No, he's right

[LichtSpektren]

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.

AES is Belgian

[chill]

The name of the algorithm behind AES is Rijndael -- a combination of the names of the Belgian cryptographers who developed it.

His utterings are in the running for either biggest lie of the year, or most ignorant.

Re:It's politics, stupid

[fyngyrz]

You have to be not actually dumb to get high up in government

o U.S. President George Walker Bush.
o U.S. Senator Ted Stevens.
o U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann.
o U.S. Representative Todd Akin.
o U.S. Representative Joe Barton

I rest my case. I could go on, but it's really quite painful to think about.