New report contends mandatory crypto backdoors would be futile

  • 11 February 2016
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With two-thirds of crypto developed abroad, crooks have plenty of non-US alternatives.

 
by Dan Goodin - Feb 11, 2016
 
An estimated 63 percent of the encryption products available today are developed outside US borders, according to a new report that takes a firm stance against the kinds of mandated backdoors some federal officials have contended are crucial to ensuring national security.
 
The report, prepared by security researchers Bruce Schneier, Kathleen Seidel, and Saranya Vijayakumar, identified 865 hardware or software products from 55 countries that incorporate encryption. Of them, 546 originated from outside the US. The most common non-US country was Germany, a country that has publicly disavowed the kinds of backdoors advocated by FBI Director James Comey and other US officials. Although the Obama administration is no longer asking Congress for legislation requiring them, it continues to lobby private industry to include ways law-enforcement agencies can decrypt encrypted data sent or stored by criminal or terrorism suspects.
 
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