{"id":1036,"date":"2016-12-22T15:27:50","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T23:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2016-12-22T18:31:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T02:31:29","slug":"bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/22\/bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan Congressional Group Confirms Encryption Backdoors Are Unnecessary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The bipartisan Congressional Encryption Working Group just released an<a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/20161220EWGFINALReport.pdf\"> end of year report<\/a> after spending much of the last year looking into the decades-long encryption debate &#8211; and have squarely refuted the idea that weakening encryption is necessary to protect people.<\/p>\n<p>The working group was formed after several high-profile cases where law enforcement asked for additional access to consumer devices, citing howe \u201cthe widespread adoption of encryption poses a real challenge to the law enforcement community and strong encryption is essential to both individual privacy and national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve talked about how protecting cybersecurity is a shared responsibility and we see increased need for governments, tech companies and users to work together on topics like encryption, security vulnerabilities and surveillance &#8211; as <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/22\/now-we-all-agree-there-are-no-safe-backdoors-when-it-comes-to-encryption\/\">Denelle notes in her blog post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/20161220EWGFINALReport.pdf\">The report<\/a> refutes the idea that encryption backdoors are a necessary (or good) solution and argues against laws that would mandate weakening encryption &#8211; saying that \u201cany measure that weakens encryption works against the national interest.\u201d The report acknowledges the profound impact that encryption has on law enforcement investigations and the \u201cgoing dark\u201d phenomenon, but cautions that there is no \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d solution to the encryption challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Four key observations are highlighted for the next Congress as they work on encryption related matters:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Any measure that weakens encryption works against the national interest.<\/li>\n<li>Encryption technology is a global technology that is widely and increasingly available around the world. (it\u2019s free and often open source)<\/li>\n<li>The variety of stakeholders, technologies, and other factors create different and divergent challenges with respect to encryption and the \u201cgoing dark\u201d phenomenon, and therefore there is no \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d solution to the encryption challenge.<\/li>\n<li>Congress should foster cooperation between the law enforcement community and technology companies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Encryption Working Group also called for additional inquiry into topics including lawful hacking and the Vulnerabilities Equities Process (VEP), two areas that <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/09\/19\/improving-government-disclosure-of-security-vulnerabilities\/\">Mozilla has been advocating for reform to add transparency and accountability measures<\/a>. The report said \u201cstakeholders expressed concern that a legal hacking regime creates the wrong incentives for government agencies that should be working with private companies to patch vulnerabilities and improve cybersecurity\u201d and the report included questions about the existing Vulnerability Equities Process (VEP) and how Congress might formalize it.<\/p>\n<p>While we are encouraged by the Encryption Working Group report, it has findings and recommendations that are not currently binding. So, we will continue to work with legislators, tech companies and internet users to bring more education, awareness and advocacy for the protection of encryption and cybersecurity. We look forward to working with the next administration, Congress and government law enforcement agencies on protecting cybersecurity and national security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bipartisan Congressional Encryption Working Group just released an end of year report after spending much of the last year looking into the decades-long encryption debate &#8211; and have squarely &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/22\/bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1273,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[283198,525,10119,283226,10128,847,69,141519,46877],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bipartisan Congressional Group Confirms Encryption Backdoors Are Unnecessary - Open Policy &amp; Advocacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/22\/bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Heather West\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/22\/bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/22\/bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary\/\",\"name\":\"Bipartisan Congressional Group Confirms Encryption Backdoors Are Unnecessary - Open Policy &amp; Advocacy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-22T23:27:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-23T02:31:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/fdff0d5bb50c4a81e2743d7f91775d40\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/22\/bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/22\/bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/22\/bipartisan-congressional-group-confirms-encryption-backdoors-are-unnecessary\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bipartisan Congressional Group Confirms Encryption Backdoors Are Unnecessary\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/\",\"name\":\"Open Policy &amp; Advocacy\",\"description\":\"Mozilla&#039;s official blog on open Internet policy initiatives and developments\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/fdff0d5bb50c4a81e2743d7f91775d40\",\"name\":\"Heather West\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/473697387e4dd4394de2baac8badd43c\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cc029c6538a1898f71b01b401691323?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1cc029c6538a1898f71b01b401691323?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Heather West\"},\"description\":\"Heather works on security, cybersecurity, data governance, and privacy in the digital age at Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser. At the intersection of public policy and technology, she is part policy-to-tech translator, part product consultant, and part long-term Internet strategist. She works with stakeholders and policymakers in DC as well as global product and policy teams and was recognized as one of the 2014 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Law and Policy. She helped found the public policy team at CloudFlare, a website performance and security company, served as global and Federal privacy and security issue expert on Google\u2019s public policy team, and started her career working on government technology, privacy, and identity management at the public interest group Center for Democracy and Technology. She holds a B.A. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Wellesley College with concentrations in philosophy and legal studies, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP\/US). 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At the intersection of public policy and technology, she is part policy-to-tech translator, part product consultant, and part long-term Internet strategist. She works with stakeholders and policymakers in DC as well as global product and policy teams and was recognized as one of the 2014 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Law and Policy. She helped found the public policy team at CloudFlare, a website performance and security company, served as global and Federal privacy and security issue expert on Google\u2019s public policy team, and started her career working on government technology, privacy, and identity management at the public interest group Center for Democracy and Technology. She holds a B.A. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Wellesley College with concentrations in philosophy and legal studies, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP\/US). 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