Mathematics Department Colloquium: The Shape-Shifting Crypto Wars
Date and Time: April 5, 2024, 4pm-5pm
Location: SEC Anderson 206
Speaker: Susan Landau, Fletcher School and Computer Science Department, Tufts University
Abstract: The US government and cryptographers, industry, and academia faced off beginning in the 1970s about the private sector's right to develop encryption for business and public use. By the 1990s, the battle had transformed into industry's ability to sell devices with strong encryption, with the US government using export controls to control the technology's use. In 2000, the government substantively loosened export controls, but industry deployment was slow --- until the Snowden disclosures. When Apple, Google, Meta and other companies began efforts to provide easy-to-use and widely available consumer encryption products, the FBI went into full-force battle. Clashes in the First Crypto Wars were over the use of easily available encryption by terrorists, drug dealers, and organized crime, but now the battlefield has become one over Child Sexual Abuse Material. This talk will dissect the ever-shifting Crypto Wars and explain why (parts of) the US government have the issue wrong---again.
