US Says It Doesn't Need a Court Order To Ask Tech Companies To Build Encryption Backdoors (gizmodo.com)

schwit1 shares a report from Gizmodo: According to statements from July released this weekend, intelligence officials told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that there's no need for them to approach courts before requesting a tech company help willfully -- though they can always resort to obtaining a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order if the company refuses. The documents show officials testified they had never needed to obtain such an FISC order, though they declined to tell the committee whether they had "ever asked a company to add an encryption backdoor," per ZDNet. Other reporting has suggested the FISC has the power to authorize government personnel to compel such technical assistance without even notifying the FISC of what exactly is required. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives authorities additional powers to compel service providers to build backdoors into their products.

Comments

Re:List of assumed backdoors

[nctritech]

You forgot to mention "every radio coprocessor in every smart phone ever made." The radio coprocessor in cell phones typically has full "back door" access to the resources used by the main CPU and OS you interact with. The code for it is 100% closed off and the massive flaws in the cellular system's authentication that allow Stingrays etc. to actually work properly means you have this closed-off CPU that can do arbitrary stuff on your phone open to access from outsiders with knowledge of cell system architecture.

Re:Want to kill technology? This is how.

[gweihir]

No tech company would put in a back door.

Well, CISCO did.

Any that does is basically saying "Don't buy our product" because, as soon as they do, GUESS WHAT..people won't buy it.

Cisco did that too. And Intel is currently trying to do this as well.

Look at what happened to Microsoft after the news about PRISM. Microsoft tried to make the camera a 'requirement' for all X-Box One games until a massive backlash happened. Microsoft backtracked and it basically killed the X-Box camera for gaming outside of a short list.

People won't buy a product with a built in back door. Companies won't make a product that people won't buy.

Yes, but only if they get think they will get caught. As any other criminal-minded entity, they of course assume they will not get caught...