[Infowarrior] - Update: Senate Panel Chief Decides Against Plan to Criminalize Firms That Don’t Decipher Encrypted Messages

[Richard Forno]

(Wondering why.....this is quite a turnraound in less than 24 hours.  ---rick)

Senate Panel Chief Decides Against Plan to Criminalize Firms That Don’t Decipher Encrypted Messages
By Damian Paletta
Updated Feb. 18, 2016 9:37 p.m. ET

http://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-intel-committee-chairman-working-on-encryption-bill-1455832584

WASHINGTON—Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R., N.C.) has decided against a proposal circulating quietly on Capitol Hill to create criminal penalties for companies that decline to comply with court orders to decipher encrypted communications, a spokeswoman said Thursday night. 

The issue of how to pressure companies on encryption matters has become inflamed in Washington in recent days. Several people familiar with the matter previously said Mr. Burr was considering criminal provisions as part of the proposal. 

A U.S. magistrate judge on Tuesday ordered Apple Inc. to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation circumvent a passcode-protection system on a phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two terrorists who killed 14 people at a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif., in December. Apple has refused to comply with the order.

Mr. Burr has signaled he is studying whether to propose legislation that would tighten rules about encryption, though he hasn’t made any decision about how a bill would be designed. It’s also unclear whether Mr. Burr could marshal bipartisan support on such an issue during an election year that has divided Washington in recent months. But any proposal by Mr. Burr would not include criminal penalties for rejecting court orders about encryption, according to his spokeswoman.

“Chairman Burr is not considering criminal penalties in his draft encryption proposals,” his spokeswoman said.

Some analysts have mulled whether encryption rules could be imposed by modifying the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, a 1994 law that compels telecommunications companies to construct their systems so they can comply with court orders.

A number of companies and developers have in recent years designed encryption tools that are very easy to use and virtually impossible to decipher if used correctly. A popular form of encryption, known as “end to end,” allows only the sender and receiver of a message to see it, and the companies say they are irretrievable once sent. Some law-enforcement officials and lawmakers have said companies should design a way to retrieve these messages if a court order is obtained. But privacy advocates, a number of lawmakers and numerous technology firms have said any effort to create one-time access to encrypted messages would allow foreign countries, hackers and others to steal information using the same tools.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company will oppose a federal judge's order to help the Justice Department unlock a phone used by a suspect in the San Bernardino attack, which killed 14 people. Photo: AP
Mr. Burr has spent months pressuring technology companies to work more closely with law enforcement and others to prevent encryption tools from being used to plan and carry out crimes. He warned technology firms that they need to consider changing their “business model” in the wake of the widening use of encrypted communications.

He said last week that he’s heard complaints from district attorneys and federal prosecutors that the use of encryption by suspected criminals has made it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to retrieve evidence.

“District attorneys have come to me because they are beginning to get to a situation where they can’t prosecute cases,” Mr. Burr said at a hearing last week. “This is town by town, city by city, county by county, and state by state...It’s something we need to take seriously.”

In December, he joined with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) in proposing a bill that would require social-media companies to report online terrorist activity. That bill hasn’t advanced so far, but several technology companies have announced plans to step up efforts to prevent the spread of extremist messages.

Write to Damian Paletta at damian.paletta at wsj.com


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It's better to burn out than fade away.