FBI, intel chiefs decry "deep cynicism" over cyber spying programs
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/09/fbi-intel-chiefs-decry-deep-cynicism-over-cyber-spying-programs/ CIA Director John Brennan suggested that negative public opinion and "misunderstanding" about the US intelligence community is in part "because of people who are trying to undermine" the mission of the NSA, CIA, FBI and other agencies. These people "may be fueled by our adversaries," he said. FBI Director James Comey referred to the backlash against his lobbying for backdoors into encrypted communications provided by the technology industry as "venom and deep cynicism" that are making a rational discussion about what could and should be done nearly impossible. - - - Oh, I think I can explain the "deep cynicism" fairly easily, John and James. We all agree that there are bad people -- seriously bad people -- out there who would do us harm and might leverage crypto systems in the process. But two factors primarily drive the situation you note. First, the technical realities. To your credit, at least one of you is now at least publicly claiming to entertain the possibility that the "backdoor" regime you've been proposing is actually not technically feasible (and indeed, it's not feasible). But the equally powerful force behind the cynicism now -- and no, this doesn't require any help from our adversaries to energize -- is the essentially total and utter loss of trust by the technology community in the practices and policies of government agencies tasked with intelligence-related activities that involve cryptography, and most other aspects of government information and communications security. And just to be clear about this, there were enough publicly known examples to drive this mistrust even if Snowden hadn't stolen a single file. Winning back trust is difficult in the best of circumstances. In the current climate, it seems virtually impossible in the context under discussion. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com _______________________________________________ pfir mailing list http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
