Didn’t they just recently (like, yesterday?) suggest we all use encrypted calling apps due to the Chinese hacks on US telecoms that took advantage of these back doors?
FBI is not a monolith right now and has multiple conflicting opinions.
The part that wants to save democracy says you should encrypt your communications by using an e2e provider, and they recommend Signal.
The part that wants to serve the country (by serving the current administration — the J. Edgar Hoover part of FBI) is terrified of going dark and has been nagging encryption experts for over a decade now to nerd harder and invent a backdoor only good guys can use.
The nerds know this is mathematically impossible. And in fact bad guys (industrial spies, black hats, other nations, etc.) have leaks readily available to uncover the backdoors.
And right now a lot of FBI is scared the new admin is the bad guys.
Didn’t they just recently (like, yesterday?) suggest we all use encrypted calling apps due to the Chinese hacks on US telecoms that took advantage of these back doors?
FBI is not a monolith right now and has multiple conflicting opinions.
The part that wants to save democracy says you should encrypt your communications by using an e2e provider, and they recommend Signal.
The part that wants to serve the country (by serving the current administration — the J. Edgar Hoover part of FBI) is terrified of going dark and has been nagging encryption experts for over a decade now to nerd harder and invent a backdoor only good guys can use.
The nerds know this is mathematically impossible. And in fact bad guys (industrial spies, black hats, other nations, etc.) have leaks readily available to uncover the backdoors.
And right now a lot of FBI is scared the new admin is the bad guys.
They sure did. It was in response to volt typhoon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volt_Typhoon
Yes - the details surrounding that, and its relationship to this statement, is covered in the article.