Congress's New Encryption Bill Just Leaked, And It's As Bad As Experts Imagined

Kevin Bankston was quoted in Vice about the Senate's draft encryption bill:

Experts have repeatedly warned that forcing companies to help circumvent their own encryption would catastrophically weaken the security of average users, endanger US national security and economic competitiveness, and ultimately wouldn't thwart terrorists and other criminals, who would simply switch to foreign apps and devices that the law doesn't cover.

“This bill would not only be surrendering America’s cybersecurity but also its tech economy, as foreign competitors would continue to offer—and bad guys would still be able to easily use!--more secure products and services,” said Kevin Bankston, director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, in a statement emailed to Motherboard.

“The fact that this lose-lose proposal is coming from the leaders of our Senate’s intelligence committee, when former heads of the NSA, DHS, the CIA and more are all saying that we are more secure with strong encryption than without it, would be embarrassing if it weren’t so frightening.”