Encryption working group to provide recommendations by January

A working group on encryption will aim to provide its legislative recommendations to the House by the end of this Congress, on Jan 3.

The working group, led by the House leaders of the Judiciary and the Energy and Commerce committees, this week announced a road map for their effort.

The group will work “diligently” over the next several months to examine potential solutions to the challenges law enforcement officials face as encryption becomes more widespread.

{mosads}Composed of four Republicans and four Democrats, the panel will receive technical briefings on encryption and conduct meetings with experts from the government, civil society, academic and private industry sectors.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) will serve as ex officio members of the working group.   

The panel faces competition from a rival commission studying the topic, which would be created by a bill from House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).

The bill is seen as a compromise measure and has arguably drawn the most support of the various legislative offerings addressing encryption — although its fate has been complicated by the creation of the working group.

The McCaul-Warner commission would consist of 16 members, including tech industry executives, privacy advocates, cryptologists, law enforcement officials and members of the intelligence community.

Modeled after the 9/11 Commission, the group would have six months to create an interim report and a year to deliver its full findings. Its scope would expand beyond encryption, exploring more broadly how authorities can maintain security with the proliferation of modern technology.

The recent terror attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, Calif., and Brussels have led to increased calls for congressional action on encryption. Lawmakers say they believe the technology helped the attackers evade authorities in each incident, though little evidence has been presented to back up the claims.

The FBI and law enforcement officials have for years warned that extremists are increasingly using encrypted platforms to “go dark” and hide their plans from authorities. They are calling on tech companies to provide investigators with guaranteed access to secure data.

But the tech industry and privacy advocates have resisted. They insist such guarantees would create “backdoors,” or security vulnerabilities, that hackers and spies could exploit.

The dispute took on a new urgency during the standoff between the FBI and Apple over a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Many believe that the issue can only be resolved through Congressional action — but it remains undetermined whose bailiwick the going dark problem is.