US Efforts To Regulate Encryption Have Been Flawed, Government Report Finds (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Guardian: U.S. Republican congressional staff said in a report released Wednesday that previous efforts to regulate privacy technology were flawed and that lawmakers need to learn more about technology before trying to regulate it. The 25-page white paper is entitled Going Dark, Going Forward: A Primer on the Encryption Debate and it does not provide any solution to the encryption fight. However, it is notable for its criticism of other lawmakers who have tried to legislate their way out of the encryption debate. It also sets a new starting point for Congress as it mulls whether to legislate on encryption during the Clinton or Trump administration. "Lawmakers need to develop a far deeper understanding of this complex issue before they attempt a legislative fix," the committee staff wrote in their report. The committee calls for more dialogue on the topic and for more interviews with experts, even though they claim to have already held more than 100 such briefings, some of which are classified. The report says in the first line that public interest in encryption has surged once it was revealed that terrorists behind the Paris and San Bernardino attacks "used encrypted communications to evade detection." Congressman Ted Lieu is pushing the federal government to treat ransomware attacks on medical facilities as data breaches and require notifications of patients.

Comments

Re:Develop a far deeper understanding

[pr0t0]

"lawmakers need to learn more about [insert topic] before trying to regulate it"

I was going to type up a lengthy missive on how unsurprised, yet blind with rage I am about the above phrase. But I just do not care any more. I have no faith left in the U.S. government, and at my age, I will not waste the time on meaningless scorn. Congress can bicker back and forth on whether plants crave electrolytes all they want.

Perhaps some very distant day, hundreds or thousands of years in the future, we (as a species) will have some system of government where experts in their field are the ones who decide how best to regulate that field, with appropriate checks and balances in place of course.

Re:Wait, What?

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Well it isn't as bad as I thought but it is biased in that it does have the "Something must be done" theme in it. The document could have been worse but it could have been a lot better. As someone involved in security and encryption it felt very patronizing to me but then I'm not the target audience. There is a lot of space dedicated to explaining the productive uses of encryption but then there is about the same explaining why it makes life difficult for law enforcement. Then there is a big section showing what restrictions other countries have or what laws governing encryption other countries have tried to pass. They still push the idea that encryption caused them problems in the Paris attack yet ignoring the fact that the mastermind of it was featured as pig fucker of the month in Daesh's monthly magazine. They also bring up the San Bernardino cellphone but fail to mention that the government at all levels screw the pooch at every turn there. Yes I actually did read it.