White House group considered four ways to unlock encrypted info
A group of law enforcement officials, intelligence agents and diplomats conjured up ways to access encrypted data over the summer, according to The Washington Post. The publication got its hands on a draft paper that details four techniques to bypass encryption that tech companies could use under court order. Among the four, the most alarming one is perhaps the proposal that suggests the use of software upgrades to introduce spyware into the target's device, because that sounds like it could be easily abused. Another idea is to add physical keys to phones that law enforcement can use to unlock them. The group also listed splitting encryption keys that can only be combined with the court's permission and having companies back up data to an unsecured location for access by authorities as other possible approaches.
While it's no secret that feds would love to have access to private information, senior officials insist that these four are nothing but proofs-of-concept. One of them told the Post that they're "just saying these are things that could be done," while National Security Council spokesman Mark Stroh assured the publication that these proposed actions aren't being actively pursued. In fact, the team detailed the drawbacks of using these techniques in the draft memo and even came up with a set of principles to guide the government when dealing with the private sector. Those principles include not doing bulk collection and not giving the government "golden keys" to access private info.
[Image credit: merznatalia/Getty]
