NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers said it is vital for Divine Sam to spy on criminals and that this should be possible even if citizens use strong encryption.
Rogers reckons Americans should secure their communications against all eavesdroppers - except, of course, those working for the police, the FBI and the NSA (to tackle terrorism). Experts on the other hand warn that any backdoors allowing this to happen can also be exploited by criminals.
Rogers spoke to one congress για την ασφάλεια στον κυβερνοχώρο που διοργανώθηκε από το New America Foundation think tank τη Δευτέρα σύμφωνα με το TheRegister. Παρών ήταν και ο Bruce Schneier, ο οποίος έχει γράψει βιβλίο για την κρυπτογραφία και υποστήριζε ότι η εμμονή στα backdoors της κρυπτογράφησης – όπως τα skeleton keys που μπορούν να αποκρυπτογραφήσουν οποιοδήποτε μήνυμα – θα αποδυναμώσει την ασφάλεια των Αμερικανών.
The head of security at Yahoo! Alex Stamos also wondered if his company is forced to install government-mandated backdoors, why wouldn't they have the right να υποβάλλουν παρόμοια αιτήματα οι Ρώσοι και οι Κινέζοι.
"I think we would be lying [saying that adding a backdoor] is not technically possible. Now, this should be done within a framework. "I're the first to recognize that," Rogers said.
Rogers also spoke about backdoor, saying he was malicious, and insisted that there should be a legal framework for everyone except the FBI or the NSA to make the interception of communications easier.
Όμως στο τραπέζι έπεσε και το ερώτημα για την αποκάλυψη της περασμένης εβδομάδας από τον Snowden που αναφέρει η NSA και GCHQ παραβίασαν το μεγαλύτερο κατασκευαστή καρτών SIM για να υποκλέψουν τα κλειδιά κρυπτογράφησης, καθώς και για την έκθεση της Kaspersky Lab για το κακόβουλο software της NSA που είναι κρυμμένο στο firmware of hard drives.
"It is clear that I am not going to go into details. "But I would like to say that we are legal," he said, adding that he did not believe Internet security would be compromised.
Is the NSA legal? Doubtful. The 215 Rule of the Patriotic Law, which supports espionage, will be renewed within 2015 after it expires at 31 May. Rogers said it is up to legislators to renew or change the law.
The answer to the question of the title is the characteristic Perfect Forward Secrecy: software in most communications uses PFS to hold the data encrypted even if the encryption keys are in the hands of agents or criminals. So the Feds need other means to unlock the encrypted data.
