The New York Times on Encryption Backdoors

In a bit of good news, The New York Times has published an editorial Calling on the NSA to close their backdoors. There’s nothing in the editorial that will be news to Irreal readers but it’s useful because it educates the public at large as to the issues at stake. It’s easy for us geeks, who sometimes seem to understand these things at the DNA level, to forget that to most people encryption backdoors (and even the associated massive surveillance) is (1) an esoteric technical issue not understandable by normal folks and (2) something that has no impact on their lives.

The advantage to having mainstream publications like the NYT weigh in on the situation is that it can help educate the man on the street about the risks these activities bring to all of us. The article mentions that Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey has introduced legislation that would bar the government from demanding that software makers build in backdoors to their products. If you’re a US citizen, this might be a good time to let your representatives know that you support Holt’s measure.

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