Ideas from Mark Stout

General Michael Hayden (former NSA and CIA director) said in an interview at Disrupt NY 2016, that he disagrees with Federal Law Enforcement's desire to break encryption. “The arc of technology is in the direction of unbreakable encryption and no laws are going to get in the way of that reality,” He goes on to tell those people “My advice is, get over it. There’s still a lot of things you can legitimately do to make America safe through electronic surveillance,” He also had some interesting things to say about the candidates.   He said Trump’s national security understanding is at “a level of sophistication that’s a half-a-level below bumper stickers,” and that Trump’s discussion of keeping Muslims out of the country provided fodder to jihadist narratives. He also doesn't like Clinton much either, "referring to her decision to operate her own email server out of her home as the “original sin.” This is an important read about privacy, encryption, and security. ...

Following the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, some politicians are again trumpeting the need to give law enforcement access to all encrypted messages. The theory is, if we could read the texts and email terrorists send and receive, we would know their plans. A law would require makers of encryption products to build a backdoor into their software that law enforcement would access. FBI Director James B. Comey has long advocated law enforcement be given this tool. The New York Times reported recently it appeared Comey had lost an internal struggle within the administration to force Apple, Google and others to decode messages for law enforcement. It is unclear how, or even if, security software made in other countries could be compelled to provide backdoors to U.S. law enforcement. The easiest way to understand how this might work is to look at a physical system. The Transportation Safety Administration requires the ability to unlock suitcases for security inspecti...