Fwd: [Cryptography] Justice Dept. Revives Push to Mandate a Way to Unlock Phones

[grarpamp]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Erik <erik at erikgranger.name>
Date: Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 1:38 PM
Subject: [Cryptography] Justice Dept. Revives Push to Mandate a Way to
Unlock Phones
To: cryptography at metzdowd.com


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/politics/unlock-phones-encryption.html

WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement officials are renewing a push for
a legal mandate that tech companies build tools into smartphones and
other devices that would allow access to encrypted data in criminal
investigations.

F.B.I. and Justice Department officials have been quietly meeting with
security researchers who have been working on approaches to provide
such “extraordinary access” to encrypted devices, according to people
familiar with the talks.

Based on that research, Justice Department officials are convinced
that mechanisms allowing access to the data can be engineered without
intolerably weakening the devices’ security against hacking.

...

Craig Federighi, the senior vice president of software engineering at
Apple, stressed the importance of strengthening — not weakening —
security protections for products like the iPhone, saying threats to
data security were increasing every day and arguing that it was a
question of “security versus security” rather than security versus
privacy.

“Proposals that involve giving the keys to customers’ device data to
anyone but the customer inject new and dangerous weaknesses into
product security,” he said in a statement. “Weakening security makes
no sense when you consider that customers rely on our products to keep
their personal information safe, run their businesses or even manage
vital infrastructure like power grids and transportation systems.”

What are some possible technological responses that can be utilized to
protect against this sort of legislation? I'm curious what people here
would do if some legislation of this sort were written into law.

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