FBI Slammed on Capitol Hill for 'Stupid' Ideas About Encryption

Daniel F. Conley[0] knows better than technical experts? Alright we have to dive into their qualifications:

- Law school + bar exam

- Suffolk County District Attorney

- Assistant D.A.

- Anti-gang violence task force (D.A. attorney)

- Homicide Unit of the D.A.'s office

- City councilman

- District attorney

So, no, Conley has zero expertise in this area. They don't know better than the experts (who are correct by the way), and creating silly analogies about going to the moon doesn't help the situation. Why are we even putting this person on the stand? They just sound like an authoritarian nutjob.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_F._Conley

I enjoyed this part in particular:

Conley made the most colorful remarks of the day, including saying that he didn’t believe technical experts who said building backdoors is impossible.

“Did John Kennedy say we couldn’t go to the moon?” Conley asked. “He said no, we’re going to go because it’s the hard thing to do.”

“I’m a proud and patriotic American, too,” Farenthold responded. “But maybe the proper analogy would be if Kennedy said ‘We’re going to go the moon and no one else is ever going to go. Ever.’”

> "Conley then proposed that a backdoor be implemented on personal devices but corporate networks be allowed to keep strong encryption with no 'golden keys.'"

Wow. This is deviously brilliant!

/cue establishment of tens of millions of new LLCs and corporations

States will love this, the revenues and tax implications are going to be massive! /s

Giving the US government a back door will legitimize the concept. Every tin-pot authoritarian jackass on the planet will write their spy infrastructure into law. It won't just be one back door in our products. It will be one back door per jurisdiction.