Glenn S. Gerstell, general counsel for the National Security Agency (NSA) published a letter in the New York Times, writing about how a “digital revolution threatens to upend our entire national security infrastructure.” He thinks backdoors into encryption is one answer (of course he doesn’t use the word backdoor), as well as the agency collecting even more data from citizens. Read his letter by clicking the link below, then read this take by Nefarious Laboratories.
Make no mistake, this letter is a thinly-veiled threat to every major corporation around the globe: provide the U.S. government with access to all of your data or else, “there is another path, and it is the one taken by authoritarian regimes around the world”.
Check It Out: NSA Publishes Threatening Letter Calling for Encryption Backdoors
Hmmm. I wonder if we read the same article. I clearly missed the part where he wants less effective encryption; In fact it seems to me like he is worried that private encryption will become increasingly ineffective in the face of more readily available advanced hacking capabilities in the hands of other state and criminal actors. A bit long perhaps, but I doubt any one could successfully argue that his presentation of what we are facing is generally incorrect. No threats that I could discern, and the only data he seems interested in acquiring is about cyber intrusions in the private sphere. The quote you mention, “there is another path, and it is the one taken by authoritarian regimes around the world” has been taken out of context. Also, you might note that the article is part of the NYT’s privacy project; it is not a “letter”. Anyway, thanks for bringing it to my attention – might have missed it otherwise.
Yet, the NSA has cracked or has backdoors into almost everything but still wants more? Maybe they just want to make it easier on themselves by having access granted to them without any effort on their part, for anything new that might pop up.