Full Disclosure, I'm a co-author on the MIT paper that this article cites. The posted article is talking about the following two op-eds by WaPo[1,2]. What's in

Full Disclosure, I'm a co-author on the MIT paper that this article cites. The posted article is talking about the following two op-eds by WaPo[1,2]. What's interesting here is that in [2] they call for a national academies study on the issue, the logic being that the state of encryption has changed. The academies have studied exceptional access in the past, and generally thought it was a terrible idea [3]. I'm personally not opposed to a new study, but the point of the paper we wrote was to argue that it's an even _worse_ idea than the last time exceptional access was considered. I'd be shocked if the academies changed their minds. [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/putting-the-digital-keys-to-unlock-data-out-of-reach-of-authorities/2015/07/18/d6aa7970-2beb-11e5-a250-42bd812efc09_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/putting-the-digital-... [2]https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/compromise-needed-on-smartphone-encryption/2014/10/03/96680bf8-4a77-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/compromise-needed-on... [3]http://www.nap.edu/catalog/5131/cryptographys-role-in-securing-the-information-society http://www.nap.edu/catalog/5131/cryptographys-role-in-securi...