Washington Post reporter Andrea Peterson has put together a really excellent
explainer piece on what you should know about encryption. Considering the source, it's a good "general knowledge" explainer piece for people who really aren't that aware of encryption or technically savvy. That's important and useful, given how important this debate is
and how many participants in it don't seem to understand the first thing about encryption. But what struck me is this little tidbit:
Can the government stop terrorists from using encryption?
Well, no. The most the government can probably do is bar companies from offering the most secure forms of encryption to their users. But encryption isn't just one product. Just like the math it's based on, it's really more of a concept or an idea rather than a specific technical tool.
And it's pretty impossible to outlaw ideas.
It goes on, in some depth, to explain just what a stupid idea it would be to outlaw end-to-end encryption, noting that there are lots of non-US companies and plenty of open source offerings for encryption that would still be widely available and used.
Now, compare that to the
ridiculous editorial that the Washington Post put out
a year ago, advocating for just such a solution:
How to resolve this? A police “back door” for all smartphones is undesirable — a back door can and will be exploited by bad guys, too. However, with all their wizardry, perhaps Apple and Google could invent a kind of secure golden key they would retain and use only when a court has approved a search warrant. Ultimately, Congress could act and force the issue, but we’d rather see it resolved in law enforcement collaboration with the manufacturers and in a way that protects all three of the forces at work: technology, privacy and rule of law.
Hey, Washington Post editorial board, I hope you read your own newspaper.
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