Good news from Congress

From Beta News:

Congressional Encryption Working Group says encryption backdoors are near unworkable
The Congressional Encryption Working Group (EWG) was set up in the wake of the Apple vs FBI case in which the FBI wanted to gain access to the encrypted contents of a shooter's iPhone. The group has just published its end-of-year report summarizing months of meetings, analysis and debate.

The report makes four key observations, starting off with: "Any measure that weakens encryption works against the national interest". This is certainly not a new argument against encryption backdoors for the likes of the FBI, but it is an important one. EWG goes on to urge congress not to do anything to weaken encryption.

The group says: "Congress should not weaken this vital technology because doing so works against the national interest. However, it should not ignore and must address the legitimate concerns of the law enforcement and intelligence communities". To overcome situations such as the one that arose in the case of the San Bernardino iPhone, one suggestion is that there should be greater collaboration between technology companies and law enforcement. This sounds like a simple solution, but it has privacy implications which were raised by Apple at the time of the case.

The full report is here (PDF File). Good news - encryption is a sticky problem. Too good and it allows criminals and terrorists to operate with greater freedom. Too poor (or with government mandated back doors) it violates the privacy of people and businesses. Encryption does not mean that it can never be decoded - it is a time factor. The better encryption algorithms just take longer to decode.