When politicians want to avoid taking a controversial position or get caught without a plan to tackle a pressing issue, they often turn to a tool that makes it look like they are addressing a problem: the blue-ribbon commission.
But U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, says a commission on encryption and national security that he and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, are proposing will be different. The National Commission on Security and Technology Challenges would work to find legislative and technological solutions to help federal agencies walk the line between preventing terrorist attacks and ensuring tech products aren’t exposed to hackers.
McCaul and Warner in late February introduced a bill to create the 16-member commission, which would include intelligence officials, tech experts, academics and civil liberties advocates, and are working to build support for it. The bipartisan and bicameral pair will pitch their plan Saturday at South by Southwest’s interactive conference.
Although McCaul said he has been working on the issue for more a year, the conversation is now being driven by the court case between Apple and the federal government over the iPhone used by one of the attackers in the December shooting in San Bernadino, Calif., that killed 14 people.
Apple is fighting a demand by prosecutors to write new software that would “unlock” the phone, which is inaccessible because of automatically activating security features.
The San Bernadino case, however, is an imperfect example of the problem the McCaul-Warner commission would address because it centers on gathering records after an attack. McCaul said his “biggest concern” is preventing an attack like the November massacre in Paris that killed 130. The terrorists hid their plot in part by using encrypted instant messaging applications.
“They have now learned to use end-to-end encryption on apps to communicate, and we can’t see those communications even if we have a court order,” he said. “It’s a technology challenge, but it’s a huge federal law enforcement and homeland security challenge. … If you can’t see what they’re saying, then it’s hard to stop.”
McCaul, however, said he is also concerned that proposals requiring U.S. companies to provide the government with a “back door” to observe private communication or open them up will expose those devices to hackers and could drive the tech industry to other countries.
“It’s not privacy vs. security. It’s really security vs. security,” he said.
McCaul said he hopes recommendations from the commisison will include ideas for new technologies and not just new laws. “The whole purpose of the commission is to help us. I don’t think Congress has the answers right now.”
The commission is supported by interests as disparate as the National Security Agency and Apple Inc. But some skeptics of government regulation of the Web are not on-board.
The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation said the commission could give cover to those wishing to allow the government to force companies to weaken security features.
“The Warner-McCaul proposal ignores what technical experts, computer scientists, and others have repeatedly told Congress for more than 20 years: weakening encryption standards and mandating backdoors (or key escrow) for government access will make people and their devices less safe,” the group said in a written statement.
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