CIA Director: It’s the Media’s Fault That Terrorists Are So Good at Encryption by Kate Knibbs.’
From the post:
…
Ledgett poked his finger at the media even more explicitly. “We track when our foreign intelligence targets talk about the security of their communication,” he said. “And we see a growing number of them, because of what’s in the press about the value of encryption, moving towards that.”The implication of these statements—that media reports are somehow optimized to help terrorists be better at evading law enforcement—is a dangerous one. Yes, of course terrorists read. But Brenner and Ledgett’s statements situate media support for strong encryption on the side of terrorism. Neither intelligence leader recognized how members of their own communities might also benefit from media reports about encryption. In fact, neither Brennan or Ledgett bothered to acknowledge that their own agencies rely on encryption as a crucial security measure.
Neither Brennan or Ledgett specified which reports were believed to be frequently dog-eared on ISIS squatters, but that doesn’t matter. Extremists are interested in privacy tools, and media reports on privacy tools. Saying that they read about which tools to use is just saying that any group with goals attempts to find information that will help achieve those goals. Implying that media reports are aiding and abetting the enemy—not to mention the notion that reports highlighting privacy protections are somehow devious—is just unfair and chilling.
Kate’s right about blaming the media for extremists using encryption is far fetched, not to mention “…just unfair and chilling.”
But what we are witnessing is the projection (Jung) of ignorance of the speakers onto others.
These witnesses making these statements have as much expertise at encryption as I do at break dancing. Which is to say none at all.
They are sock puppets who “learn” about encryption or at least buzz phrases about encryption from public media.
On in the case of the FBI, from an FBI training manual that shows images of hard wired connections in a phone junction box.
Comey now wonders why encryption is allowed to defeat such measures. You have to wonder if Comey has noticed that cellphones are not followed by long phone lines.
Other than summarizing their nonsensical statements, the news media in general should not interview, quote or report any statement by these witnesses without a disclaimer that such witnesses are by definition incompetent on the question at hand.
Members of Congress can continue to billow and coo with those of skills equal to their own but the public should be forewarned of their ignorance.