WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Some US officials have proposed blocking the sale of encryption tools and applications, arguing the tools effectively block law enforcement and intelligence agencies from accessing or retrieving data. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has repeatedly warned about the threat of terrorists “going dark,” or using encryption to avoid detection.
“Encryption is foundational to the future. So spending time arguing about key, encryption is bad and we ought to do away with it that is a waste of time to me,” Rogers said in a speech at the Atlantic Council.
Rogers explained that rather than preventing data encryption, official must adapt to the challenges it poses and how to meet “legitimate concerns from multiple perspectives.”
However, Rogers did not address the subject of security backdoors, a popular request among the intelligence and law enforcement communities that allows IT providers to break encryption and retrieve secure data for criminal or national security investigations.
Different IT market analyses have estimated the global consumer base for encryption tools could grow to between $2 and $4 billion by 2020. Companies like Apple already provide end to end encryption for all new models of the iPhone.
