The debate over whether to regulate encryption is a “waste of time,” the director of the National Security Agency said on Thursday.
“Encryption is foundational to the future. Spending time arguing … [saying] encryption is bad and we ought to do away with it, that’s a waste of time to me,” Adm. Mike Rogers said during a discussion on cybersecurity held at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C.
“What we need to ask ourselves is, given that foundation, what’s the best way for us to deal with it?” Rogers said.
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Some members of Congress have proposed laws to regulate encryption offered by U.S. companies, asserting that it could help prevent terrorists from communicating in secret. But those laws would not touch encryption products developed in other countries, or by terrorists themselves. As a result, the national security community has voiced increasing skepticism about the value any law could provide.
The language is the strongest Rogers has used on the matter. In September, he acknowledged that legislation to weaken encryption could create “more opportunities for malicious hackers or foreign hackers to get access to the keys” in response to a question from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., during a congressional hearing.
It also makes him the second person in his position to say as much. Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, who also led the NSA, has called “end-to-end encryption … good for America,” and opposed laws to weaken it.
“We have a very interesting confluence of events coming together for us as a society and as a world right now,” Rogers said. “Technology is creating capabilities that have only been a dream for most of us as a society. … It has revolutionized our world in a way that most of us don’t even recognize.
“At the same time, that technology also represents a potential vulnerability. There are people out there who exploit that vulnerability, some for very good reasons, others for not so good reasons. That’s not going to go away,” he added. “We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to deal with that … in a context in which the government is increasingly mistrusted and privacy concerns have never been higher.”
