http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/as-encryption-spreads-us-worries-about-access-to-data-for-investigations/2015/04/10/7c1c7518-d401-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html
By Ellen Nakashima and Barton Gellman
The Washington Post
April 10, 2015
For months, federal law enforcement agencies and industry have been
deadlocked on a highly contentious issue: Should tech companies be obliged
to guarantee government access to encrypted data on smartphones and other
digital devices, and is that even possible without compromising the
security of law-abiding customers?
Recently, the head of the National Security Agency provided a rare hint of
what some U.S. officials think might be a technical solution. Why not,
suggested Adm. Michael S. Rogers, require technology companies to create a
digital key that could open any smartphone or other locked device to
obtain text messages or photos, but divide the key into pieces so that no
one person or agency alone could decide to use it?
“I don’t want a back door,” Rogers, the director of the nation’s top
electronic spy agency, said during a speech at Princeton University, using
a tech industry term for covert measures to bypass device security. “I
want a front door. And I want the front door to have multiple locks. Big
locks.”
Law enforcement and intelligence officials have been warning that the
growing use of encryption could seriously hinder criminal and national
security investigations. But the White House, which is preparing a report
for President Obama on the issue, is still weighing a range of options,
including whether authorities have other ways to get the data they need
rather than compelling companies through regulatory or legislative action.
[...]
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