Encryption

Intelligence community pushes back on encryption report

The U.S. intelligence community is pushing back on a Harvard report that has become a touchstone in the Capitol Hill debate over encryption.

“The public debate about the appropriate scope of lawful access to encrypted communications ... must be informed by recognition that the increased use of encryption represents a significant impediment to our efforts to protect the nation,” Deirdre Walsh, legislative affairs director in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, wrote in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Wyden had demanded feedback on the report, produced by Harvard’s Berkman Center, during a February hearing on the topic. Titled “Don’t Panic,” the study suggests that law enforcement will be able to turn to alternative data streams in order to conduct needed surveillance.

"Are we really headed to a future in which our ability to effectively surveil criminals and bad actors is impossible? We think not," the report reads.