The FBI director thinks tech experts who can’t comply with his impossible demands just aren’t trying hard enough by Rob Price.
In discussing the FBI’s request for back doors, FBI Director James Comey says:
… “a whole lot of good people have said it’s too hard … maybe that’s so … But my reaction to that is: I’m not sure they’ve really tried.”
If you are interested in knowing which experts and how hard they have tried, see Keys Under Doormats: Mandating insecurity by requiring government access to all data and communications by Harold Abelson, Ross Anderson, Steven M. Bellovin, Josh Benaloh, Matt Blaze, Whitfield Diffie, John Gilmore, Matthew Green, Susan Landau, Peter G. Neumann, Ronald L. Rivest, Jeffrey I. Schiller, Bruce Schneier, Michael Specter, and Daniel J. Weitzner.
I don’t normally list more than three (3) co-authors but this is an exceptional case. You will recognize a number of the names listed as co-authors.
The most troubling aspect of this story is Director Comey considering his dislike for the uniform answer from experts as sufficient grounds to assume it isn’t true.
That is true scientific illiteracy.