The public should not be able to protect their data with unbreakable end-to-end encryption, says US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. According to an interview with Politico, the DOJ is currently in dialogue with Silicon Valley and it seems debates over encryption are heating up.
We have an ongoing dialogue with a lot of tech companies in a variety of different areas…There’s some areas where they are cooperative with us. But on this particular issue of encryption, the tech companies are moving in the opposite direction. They’re moving in favor of more and more warrant-proof encryption. – Rosenstein
Although he claims to favor “strong encryption,” Rosenstein says it’s “unreasonable” for there to be encryption law enforcement can’t break. He’s making the same argument many politicians and members of law enforcement have made, namely that encryption is fine so long as some kind of backdoor exists.
He doesn’t align himself with the “absolutist position” that strong encryption must be unbreakable. Many security experts have pointed out flaws with his way of thinking. If encryption is weakened such that law enforcement can get through, it’s inherently weakened against all other threats.
