Snowden: Without Encryption, Everything Stops

[Purveyor]

Edward Snowden defended the importance of encryption, calling it the "backbone of computer security."

"Encryption saves lives. Encryption protects property," the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor said during a debate with CNN's Fareed Zakaria that aired Sunday.

"Without it, our economy stops. Our government stops. Everything stops."

Snowden, who previously leaked documents revealing the extent of the NSA's surveillance program, said we are in the midst of the "greatest crisis in computer security in history."

He said computer security bumped terrorism out of the top spot on our list of national security threats.

"Our intelligence agencies say computer security is a bigger problem than terrorism, than crime, than anything else," he said.

He called encryption a "field of mathematics."

"No matter how much we might hope otherwise, math is math. It works the same for Mother Teresa as it does for Osama bin Laden," he said.

more...

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/278320-snowden-without-encryption-everything-stops

[Igel]

1. People love and hate encryption.

Encryption means the big bad government that we don't trust can spy on us.

On the other hand, it means that the IRS can easily get access to records.

It means the police can find evidence of child pornography, of illegal deals, of conspiracies, and bring people that we'd probably want tried and convicted tried and convicted.

If the Fonseca records were encrypted, if what Snowden wanted to make public were encrypted, if the free-trade pact up for discussion were encrypted, we wouldn't have access to it.

We like our privacy. But we don't think others not like us are entitled to it. We have rights; they should just submit.

As with all other rights, there's a balance. Neither the right to privacy or the right to know are absolute. It's hard to stop and think, "Gee, there's that interesting bit of knowledge that got me aroused/outraged/amused/feeling superior, but, you know, I could have respected that other person's rights instead and next time that's what I'm going to do."