The Paris terror attacks prove that Americans shouldn’t be allowed to keep their communications away from government eyes, according to two key Senate committee chairmen who want to outlaw encrypted communications.
“In the Senate Armed Services we’re going to have hearings on it and we’re going to have legislation,” chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters on Tuesday, calling encrypted communication “unacceptable.”
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Companies such as Google and Apple have made sophisticated encrypted communications a default setting on their products, which prevents spies from the National Security Agency and other agencies worldwide from surveilling much of what users say to each other. Some in Congress say that the fact terrorists could use the feature means it needs to end.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said he would also seek legislation to prohibit such encryption. “If it means that people are going to have to change their business model, then so be it,” Burr said on Tuesday.
While it isn’t known whether the terrorists in Paris used encryption to communicate with each other in the days leading up to last week’s attacks, Burr believes they did. “We can’t tell you today specifically that they were using a specific encrypted platform. We think that’s a likely communication tool because we didn’t pick up any direct communication,” he said.
“As of today, I don’t think that any electronics have been recovered that we can directly tie to any of the seven” suspects. “Without the electronics, then it would be impossible to determine whether there were communications that took place unless we were up on both the sender and the receiver and you stumbled across fact that there was a communication happening, but you couldn’t see what was going on.”
The two national security hawks have been long-time proponents of expanding government surveillance capabilities. Those who support the right to strong encryption point out that while it may inhibit the American intelligence community, it also keeps out foreign intelligence agencies that may have nefarious motivations.
