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The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy: EventID=104573

House Committee on the Judiciary · 174.4K views · 2016-03-02 · 5:31:07

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Overview

A 2016 House Judiciary Committee hearing on encryption, held during the Apple and FBI iPhone dispute. It features testimony from Apple, the FBI and outside experts including Susan Landau, and runs over five hours.

On Hacker News

HN users cite it as primary-source testimony, especially for the argument that weakening encryption is security versus security, not privacy versus security.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2016–2017

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What people said

rietta · 2016-03 · Strong recommendation

It has been explained to them multiple times in congressional hearings. If you have a long time, the recent House Judiciary Committee Hearing is worth the watch: The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy [VIDEO] There was another one that I watched back in June, but I cannot find the video at the moment. Should have bookmarked it! In the rietta.com article, I linked the this hearing, starting with Susan Landau's testimony starting at [VIDEO] . But there is more must watch portions of the hearing. I like GnuPG and I use it regularly with work as does my team. And some of our clients do too, but not nearly enough. But my mom and dad are never going to use it. They do both use iPhones though. So being able to protect them is important.

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pdkl95 · 2017-05 · Recommendation

Susan Landau's congressional testimony - with Comey siting one table away - applies to this as well. She explains in detail not only the problem with backdoors, but also how the FBI badly needs to update their methods. The quote from the NSA that legal access doesn't mean that access will be easy should have ended this brouhaha last year. [VIDEO]

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alblue · 2016-03 · Recommendation

I sat through the YouTube presentation (which is available at [VIDEO] if you have four hours to spare). In general the discussions were quite well presented, apart from a couple of rabid questioners suggesting that public security trumped any one individuals' right to personal security. I've written up a summary of the hearings at InfoQ here: [LINK] The general responses from Apple were that it wouldn't be possible to write this just for one phone; that once the FBiOS was available for one it would be available for any phone. Dr Landon also highlighted the fact that most people now use their phones as part of a two-factor authentication, and that the easiest way to break into a system (such as the IRS leak) is to compromise login credentials. The fear is, therefore, that once pandora's box is opened that the operating system would be installable on any device and thus potentially give access to any state actor to any account simply through device compromise. The entire hearing was very well laid out, though in a few cases Apple's witnesses weren't quite as fluid as the FBI's. The congress members have five days to ask additional questions, after which presumably a report will be made. More information is available at the House page here: [LINK]

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Sources

Video by House Committee on the Judiciary, played through YouTube.

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