The Hullabaloo over Encryption

[Ryan Carboni]

Why is the FBI against encryption?

Why did the former NSA and CIA chiefs come in favor of encryption?

Their statements are hard to decipher on the subject, but not hard to
figure out.

It is usually easier to make everything but the cipher weak. Protocols
and programs commonly used are either not done properly or non
standardized, and best practices have been slow in coming.
Furthermore, the FBI has not been clear on this, but apparently they
want data in motion to be decrypted and encrypted by a central point,
and for data at rest to not be encrypted. (I seriously doubt Marcy
Wheeler's claims of Comey's charisma if he has not even been able to
say in one sentence about what the FBI wants, unless she's flirting
with him)

For groups to organize they need to communicate. Criminals use off the
shelf encryption tools, and their devices are not continuously
connected, and even less likely to be able to run root code on each
other's devices (although social engineering does work).

What the NSA and the CIA does is harder to guess, but it becomes
somewhat obvious that no nation-state has publicly explained how to
design a proper protocol (AFAIK). Furthermore, you do hear in the news
about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_cyberattack_on_United_States
.

Essentially, common criminals have a small attack surface.
Nationstates have a larger attack surface, so encryption is less
significant.