ENCRYPTION WORKING GROUP RELEASES YEAR-END REPORT

The report contains key observations and opportunities for progress

Washington, D.C. –Members of the bipartisan encryption working group – established in March 2016 by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) – today released a year-end report laying out key observations and next steps.

For nearly a year, the Encryption Working Group has held numerous meetings with a variety of federal, state, and local government entities, former government officials, private industry and trade associations, civil society organizations, consultants and legal experts, academia, and cryptographers. These meetings have produced critical information, culminating in a year-end report that lays out four key observations and identifies several areas for future discussion next Congress.

The report concludes:

“Encryption is inexorably tied to our national interests. It is a safeguard for our personal secrets and economic prosperity. It helps to prevent crime and protect national security. The widespread use of encryption technologies also complicates the missions of the law enforcement and intelligence communities. As described in this report, those complications cannot be ignored. This is the reality of modern society. We must strive to find common ground in our collective responsibility: to prevent crime, protect national security, and provide the best possible conditions for peace and prosperity.

“That is why this can no longer be an isolated or binary debate. There is no ‘us versus them,’ or ‘pro-encryption versus law enforcement.’ This conversation implicates everyone and everything that depends on connected technologies—including our law enforcement and intelligence communities. This is a complex challenge that will take time, patience, and cooperation to resolve.  The potential consequences of inaction—or overreaction—are too important to allow historical or ideological perspectives to stand in the way of progress.”

Below are key observations of the report.

1.      Any measure that weakens encryption works against the national interest.

2.      Encryption technology is a global technology that is widely and increasingly available around the world.

3.      The variety of stakeholders, technologies, and other factors create different and divergent challenges with respect to encryption and the “going dark” phenomenon, and therefore there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the encryption challenge.

4.      Congress should foster cooperation between the law enforcement community and technology companies.

Based on these observations, the report has identified several areas for future discussion by the committees next Congress, such as exploring opportunities to help law enforcement agencies navigate the process of accessing information from private companies; examining options to improve law enforcement’s ability to leverage metadata; reviewing the circumstances, resources and legal framework necessary to help law enforcement agencies exploit existing flaws in digital products; considering the implications of alternative legal strategies such as compelling individual consumers to decrypt their devices, and the role of encryption in fostering greater data security and privacy.

The members of the working group issuing the report are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), and Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Bill Johnson (R-OH), and Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY).

House Judiciary & Energy and Commerce Committees Encryption Working Group Year-End Report December 20, 2016... by Beverly Tran on Scribd

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CONYERS, HOYER, ENGEL, THOMPSON, CUMMINGS, SMITH, & SCHIFF JOINT STATEMENT CALLING FOR A COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION OF RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 ELECTION

Ranking Member, John Conyers, Jr.

Washington, DC – Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) joined  Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY), House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD), House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA), and House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA) released the following joint statement in response to news reports about intelligence assessments of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and comments by the House Republican leadership downplaying the need for a thorough investigation:

“All Americans should be deeply concerned by the reports that Russian agencies have interfered with a U.S. election. As Speaker Ryan noted, ‘any foreign intervention in our elections is entirely unacceptable.’

“The first duty of the United States government is to safeguard the American people and the integrity of our free society from attacks by foreign adversaries. Cyberattacks on our political institutions are direct threats to their integrity and are just as menacing as attacks on our economic, physical, and military infrastructure.

“Given the gravity of these unprecedented attacks by a foreign state, we need a congressional investigation that is truly bipartisan, that is comprehensive, that will not be restricted by jurisdictional lines, and that will give the American people a complete and full accounting of what happened consistent with safeguarding our national security.”

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Statement of the Honorable John Conyers, Jr. “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation”

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Director Comey, for your appearance here today.

The FBI’s mission is a complex undertaking: to protect the United States from terrorism, to enforce our criminal laws, and to lead the nation’s law enforcement community.

That mission ought to mirror our own priorities in this Committee. 

In the past few days, for example, we have witnessed near-fatal terrorist attacks in Minnesota, New York, and New Jersey.

These attacks underscore the growing fear that individuals can be moved to violence at home by the propaganda of ISIS and other terrorist groups abroad—even though they have no direct connection to those organizations.

To me, this threat is dire.  We should be doing all we can within our communities—and within our constitutional framework—to mitigate the danger.

But will our Majority use their time today to discuss these attacks?  I suspect it will not be their focus in this campaign season.

In Charlotte, in Tulsa, in Dallas—right here in Washington, DC—and in other cities across this country, our citizens demand answers to questions about race and policing, and the use of lethal force by law enforcement. 

Our police are under siege, often under resourced, and in some cases hard pressed to build trust with the communities they serve.

Director Comey, your continued work to foster lines of communication between police officers and the general public is commendable—and necessary if we are to keep our citizens safe from harm.

But will my colleagues discuss this pressing issue with the Director of the FBI, whose leadership in the law enforcement community is paramount?  Again, I fear their focus will be elsewhere.

The FBI is the lead agency in the investigation of cyber-based terrorism, computer intrusions, online sexual exploitation, and major cyber fraud.  We have known for some years about the persistent cyber threat to our critical infrastructure.

Now, we hear reports of a new cyber threat—to the very basis of our democratic process.

Twice this summer, Director Comey, I wrote to you with my fellow ranking members to ask you to look into reports that Russian state actors are working to undermine our election process.

Without objection, I ask that both of those letters be placed into the record.

It is now the clear consensus of the Intelligence Community that the Russian government was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee—and not, as some have suggested, “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”

On Friday, we learned from one report that: “U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether an American businessman identified by Donald Trump as one of his foreign policy advisors has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials—including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president.”

           

The report cites to an unnamed “senior U.S. law enforcement official,” which I presume means someone in your orbit, Director Comey.

Without objection, I ask that this article be placed into the record as well.

Let me be clear: if true, this allegation represents a danger to our national security and a clear violation of federal law—which expressly prohibits this type of back-channel negotiation.

I am not alone in describing the nature of this threat.  Speaker Ryan himself has said that “Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug.  Putin should say out of this election.”

But will our Majority press you on this problem today, Director Comey?  I suspect not.

Instead, I believe that the focus of this hearing will be more of the same: an attack on you, and your team at the Department of Justice, for declining to recommend criminal charges against Secretary Hillary Clinton.

In recent weeks, this line of attack has been remarkable only for its lack of substance.

Your critics dwell in character assassination and procedural minutia—like the proper scope of immunity agreements, and your decision to protect the identities of individuals wholly unrelated to the investigation.

They want to investigate the investigation, Director Comey.  What an unfortunate waste of this Committee’s time.

With so many actual problems confronting this nation, and so many of those challenges within your jurisdiction and ours, you would think my colleagues would set their priorities differently.

I hope that they do, as they listen to our conversation today.  I thank the Chairman, and I yield back.

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