

Some Lawmakers Are Taking Action to Close Security Backdoors - CapitalistCartr
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/12/security-backdoors-are-bad-news-some-lawmakers-are-taking-action-close-them

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tptacek
The Secure Data Act doesn't really do anything. NSA has no statutory authority
to demand backdoors in cryptography: Apple, Google, Mozilla and Microsoft can
ship strong cryptography without backdoors of any sort. Any authority to
demand a backdoor would have to come from a new bill. Wyden's bill can't
prevent Congress from passing that bill, and, when they do, they don't even
have to mention the Secure Data Act; they'll just authorize backdoors
"notwithstanding any other provision of law".

The moral equivalent of a "Sense of the Senate" resolution, Wyden's bill might
still be a good thing if focuses attention on a concern (I'm reluctant to
acknowledge that it's a real concern, and rather see industry standards bodies
and NIST as fundamentally opposed to security regardless of whether they're
compromised). But it can only be a good thing if it doesn't deceive people
into thinking the law makes them safer than it does.

