Security News > 2020 > October > US Department of Justice reignites the Battle to Break Encryption
The US Department of Justice, together with government representatives from six other countries, has recently re-ignited the perennial Battle to Break Encryption.
Modern encryption schemes don't just encrypt network traffic with your long-term encryption keys, but add in what are known as ephemeral keys into the mix - one-time encryption secrets for each communication session that are discarded after use.
At the same time, another part of the government will be arguing that strong encryption plays into the hands of terrorists and criminals - especially child abusers - because, well, because strong encryption is too strong, and gets in the way even of reasonable, lawful, court-approved surveillance and evidence collection.
As a result, justice departments, law enforcement agencies and politicians often come out swinging, demanding that we switch to encryption systems that are weak enough that they can crack into the communications and the stored data of cybercriminals if they really need to.
We can't weaken our current encryption systems if we want to stay ahead of cybercriminals and nation-state enemies; in fact, we need to keep strengthening and improving the encryption we have, because, "Attacks only ever get better."