Yes, the Feds are trying to persuade Congress that the existence of secure commercial encryption is a total disaster for national security, and that a back door for government access should be mandatory.
Which would put us back the the Fun Old Days of downloading PGP from a server in Finland, maybe. Or at least that's what evil people would do, right?
And then I guess those evil ones could be sent to prison forever on a charge of Not Making The Government's Life Easy, which is what the whole "structuring" thing is about, no?
And, as in the bygone days of Clipper Chips, there's the question of who exactly will have access to the back-door keys, and under what conditions.
We already know the answers, don't we? Edward Snowden, the Chinese, and a 14-year-old hacker in Bulgaria; and whenever they feel like it.
I'm totally certain that, for example, the IRS will never get the back-door keys for the communications of groups that engage in political advocacy. And that clerk at the FBI could never, possibly, sell your key to your creepy ex. It's inconceivable!
Afterthought: Maybe this time around the U.S. will bully Finland into restricting crypto export... so if your business wants non-backdoored crypto, you end up downloading something from Moldova. What could possibly go wrong?
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