In fall 2013 , a youthful man name Ross Ulbricht was arrested at a public library in San Francisco , distracted by two FBI agents posing as a couple in the eye of a loud and passionate argument . That beguilement demonstrate crucial as another agent swept in to grab Ulbricht ’s laptop before he could close it . If Ulbricht had closed it , the calculator ’s laborious drive would ’ve encrypted itself and made it much more unmanageable to prove the U.S. government ’s case against the man .
What was Ulbricht ’s crime ? The 29 - year - erstwhile run an online criminal market call Silk Road , and his laptop showed him still enter as the site ’s administrator and provided the feds with a detailed journal of his every movement and felonious action . In February 2015 , he was convicted on charges ofmoney laundering , hacking and conspiracy to charge drug trafficking . The files copy from his severe drive before they could be encryptedwere important to the prosecution .
Encryption Everywhere
Since Ulbricht ’s arrest , encryptionhas become more far-flung , with everything from iPhones to Facebook ’s Messenger app using it . Many devices advertise encryption as a selling point . State and federal security measures and jurisprudence enforcement officials are less potty of it , not surprisingly . drop a line in 2015 , New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. noted " condemnable defendant charged with all personal manner of crimes , including rape , kidnapping , robbery , furtherance of nestling erotica , larceny , and presumably by those interested in committing acts of terrorist act " revalue the guard that the iOS 8 operating scheme provided them .
" condemnable defendant across the nation are the chief beneficiaries of iOS 8 , and the condom of all American residential area is threaten by it , " wrote Vance .
The longstanding event came under particular examination in 2016 , after FBI and Apple argued over entree to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook ’s iPhone ( the FBI eventually did realize access ) . In 2017 , the FBI said it was sitting on nearly 7,800 inscribe machine the agency claim turn back evidence decisive to put more criminals behind bars . The agency later retool that estimate downward , to less than 2,000,writes ZDnet .
The Encryption Standoff
What to do about those encrypted devices ? Well , the U.S. Department of Justice has lobbied for a law mandating that tech company develop tools that would allow natural law enforcement to circumvent encryption and access data point on their client ' devices . No such law has been drafted , but the agency is stillpursuing the matter .
This effort is not unprecedented . In 1993 , Congress considered a law mandating the employment of the so - call " Clipper cow dung , " which would hive away a transcript of an encryption key for law enforcement and countenance the decoding of secure file with a warrant . The chipping , however , had serious technological vulnerability andwas meet with massive backlashthat killed the project just three years later .
So what is the DOJ requesting ? " [ It ’s ] call on technology company to educate a technical resolution that allows them to respond to lawful lawcourt decree without fatally compromise surety " and support firm encryption standards , emails a DOJ spokesperson who ask not to be key out .
A way to do this without compromise encryption but does not exist , pen cybersecurity expert Matt Blaze in a2015 Washington Post op - erectile dysfunction . ( Blaze write the guide to the Clipper chip ’s vulnerabilities in 1994 . ) Moreover , such a solution would effectively create an exploitable backdoor . This is extremely consequential . When programmer apply an encryption algorithm , they use a library of proven approaches . These algorithms are develop by experts who have modern arcdegree in mathematics , and they ’re exhaustively tested in the wild . The same algorithms that code your textbook messages on an iPhone and your laptop ’s hard drive are passably much the same kinds of algorithms that encrypt your online purchases and banking sessions .
Far-reaching Consequences
And this is at long last why undermining encryption is a cure far worse than the disease . We rely on encryption algorithms to fix our private data point and the nearly$2.8 trillionglobal eastward - commerce market . A back door allowing a third party to read detail of transactions means there will be a built - in way to spy on countless credit bill of fare purchases . It also could be used to enamour online banking session and other personal data useful for blackmail , identity and cite card fraud . Today , this sort of hack requires tricking the substance abuser into giving hackers access to their computing machine and internet connectedness . A back door would make such snooping far easier because nothing would be postulate of the victims other than using the WWW .
Online shopping would no longer be secure as currently hard encrypted transactions would be trivial to decrypt . Online banking would be like give random strangers a copy of your banking company instruction along with account and spreadeagle routine . And while world-wide e - commerce cratered , credit batting order processing terminals at brick - and - mortar stores also would be deeply compromise because they too execute the same algorithmic program to secure your data . hard currency would become the only safe elbow room to bribe thing , setting the global thriftiness back decades . Even then , using the ATM means risking experience your PIN and debit entry card numbers swiped within a now easily penetrable web .
But only government would have these crosscut or skeleton keys , correct ? incorrect . If encryption is weakened for governments , it ’s also weakened for hackers because you ’re efficaciously clear an equating for which there ’s only one answer . It ’s impossible to solve the same math trouble and get up with two completely different answers depending on the soul lick it . And if there ’s a skeleton cay to break encryption for law of nature enforcement , the people who have access to it can be millionaires many times over sell it to hacker , and some of them necessarily will .
For their part , a DOJ spokesperson notes via email that the terminus encryption back entrance " is unhelpful and is not what the Justice Department is seek , " add that " lessen entree to the content of lawfully obtained datum is not just an issue for Governments alone , but a mutual responsibility for all stakeholder . " The spokesperson also writes that " the Governments of the Five Eyes encourage information and communications engineering science service providers to voluntarily establish rule-governed memory access solutions to their product and services they make or operate in our countries . "
While this seems anodyne enough from a political standpoint , the want of specificity indicate that the DOJ wants some manner to decrypt data on statement with a warranty , despite protection experts say that such a way just does not exist due to the rule of math . Whatever happen , one thing is sure : Encryption will remain a fiercely contest emergence for geezerhood to come .
