It was revealed as part of the Snowden report that apparently agencies like the NSA had backdoors installed on products meant to be secure and also reportedly intercepted packages to install backdoors on them as well. Ultimately this renders security features such as encryption useless because if hackers were to discover the same backdoor, what’s stopping them from using it as well, right?
This is a huge concern especially for the tech industry and according to a report from the The Washington Post, companies such as Apple and Google along with leading cryptologists have been urging President Obama to reject government proposals that would basically allow them to install encryption backdoors on devices.
According to the letter sent to the President and obtained by The Washington Post, it reads, “Strong encryption is the cornerstone of the modern information economy’s security.” The letter was also reportedly signed by more than 140 tech companies, prominent technologists, and civil society groups.
This is not the first time we’ve seen such ideas strongly opposed. Last year a US Senator proposed a bill that would prevent backdoor access by law enforcement agencies, although on the other side of the coin you have the people like the FBI Director James Comey who believes that law enforcement agencies should be able to gain access to encrypted data when needed.