May 19, 12 noon - 1 pm
National Science Foundation, Stafford I, Room 110.
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Abstract:
The US government and cryptographers, industry, and academia faced of in the 1990s over the ability to use strong encryption; The government's tool of choice to prevent deployment was export controls; In 1996 the National Research Council issued a report on cryptography policy that concluded "On balance, the advantages of more widespread use of cryptography outweigh the disadvantages"; in 2000, the US government substantively loosened export controls; Deployment was nonetheless slow --- until the Snowden disclosures; Apple and Google's efforts to provide easy-to-use, widely deployed consumer encryption has clashed with FBI and Department of Justice investigative techniques, and twenty years later, we are in Crypto Wars II; This talk will explain the conflicts and equities involved;