NSA Chief Stakes Out Pro-Encryption Position, in Contrast to FBI
The NSA chief should be pro-encryption: the presence of backdoors in encryption (as demanded by some US law enforcement officials) creates a national security threat. Period.If law enforcement needs access to encrypted data, they already have a few different ways. They can subpoena the data and throw the person who controls the key in jail until they release it, or they can just brute-force the encryption in cases of extreme national interest (it's too expensive to do for run-of-the-mill crime, but they have the capability if they really need it).IMO the entire goal of encryption tech should be to make the government incur significant costs for every invasion of privacy they feel they have to perform. That way, they have the power to invade our privacy (and I don't think we as a populace can really stop them from having that power) but it's so expensive / cumbersome to use they really only use it in extreme cases. I'm fine with privacy being broken by the government on a case-by-case basis; the danger is when the government does a dragnet on everyone.