Manhattan DA Continues To Claim 'We Don't Want Crypto Backdoors...' By Which He Means He Wants Crypto Backdoors

Ever since last year, Manhattan DA Cy Vance has been singing the same old tune: demanding backdoors to encryption while insisting that he's not demanding backdoors. The only way this makes sense is that he doesn't seem to have the slightest clue about what he's talking about. Either that or he's willfully misrepresenting things. Neither is a good look.

He's back at it again, speaking at a cyber security conference and repeating his ridiculously clueless mantra:

Vance, speaking at the International Conference on Cyber Security here, said that law enforcement officials did not need an encryption "backdoor," sidestepping a concern of computer-security experts and device makers alike.

Instead, Vance said, he only wanted the encryption standards rolled back to the point where the companies themselves can decrypt devices, but police cannot. This situation existed until September 2014, when Apple pushed out iOS 8, which Apple itself cannot decrypt.

Right. You see, that "point" where companies themselves can decrypt? THAT'S A BACKDOOR. And it makes everyone less safe from malicious hackers and criminals. And that's why companies are moving to real encryption -- because they want to keep the public safer. You'd think that someone like the Manhattan District Attorney would be in support of a plan that keeps the public much safer. But Vance just doesn't get it.

"Tim Cook was absolutely right when he told his shareholders that the iPhone changed the world," Vance said. "It's changed my world. It's letting criminals conduct their business with the knowledge we can't listen to them."

First of all, criminals have always had ways to conduct business with the knowledge that law enforcement can't listen to them. It's called meeting in person with people. Or using code words and phrases. Encryption doesn't change that. And, of course, using encryption properly isn't easy, and it still leaves plenty of other clues. Law enforcement is never supposed to be able to get absolutely everything already. And these days, there's so much more data available to law enforcement than ever before -- things like location data from mobile phones, or information from other connected devices. The idea that his job has become more difficult is complete hogwash.

Vance's speech seems to be a repeat of what he's said before, but it's been debunked before and he just keeps making it. It's difficult to take him seriously when he keeps being so ridiculously wrong.

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