Cybersecurity & Standards, Government Surveillance, Privacy & Data
The U.S. government doesn’t know what technology to blame for the Paris attacks
Verge:
Just days after the shocking attacks in Paris, there’s a new push in Washington to crack down on encryption and other security tools in an effort to prevent future attacks. Members of Congress have proposed mandatory backdoor provisions, website shutdowns, and expanded surveillance powers. But none of the suggestions have any clear connection to methods used in the attacks, which is resulting in a strange hodgepodge of ideas. Many in the government aren’t sure which technologies to blame.
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Paris hasn’t changed the fundamental question of whether strong privacy protections should be allowed on the web for most privacy advocates. “These [Paris] attacks are reprehensible,” said Harley Geiger, senior counsel and advocacy director at the Center for Democracy & Technology, in an interview with The Verge. Noting the investigations are ongoing, he continued, “the debate about government-mandated cybersecurity vulnerabilities in this country has been going on for many years, and the dangers of a government-mandated backdoor into encryption have not changed simply because we’ve had these reprehensible attacks.”
