What was missed in almost all the reports covering Salt Typhoon was the FBI’s precise warning. “Responsibly managed” encryption is a game-changer. None of the messaging platforms which cyber experts and the media urged SMS/RCS users to switch to are “responsibly managed” under this definition.

The FBI has now expanded on its warning last week, telling me that “law enforcement supports strong, responsibly managed encryption. This encryption should be designed to protect people’s privacy and also managed so U.S. tech companies can provide readable content in response to a lawful court order.”. //

There are just three providers of end-to-end encrypted messaging that matter. Apple, Google and Meta—albeit Signal provides a smaller platform favored by security experts. These are the “U.S. tech companies” the FBI says should change platforms and policy to “provide readable content in response to a lawful court order.”

This doesn’t mean giving the FBI or other agencies a direct line into content, it means Meta, Apple and Google should have the means, the keys to provide content when warranted to do so by a court. Right now they cannot, Police chiefs and other agencies describe this situation as “going dark” and they want it to change. //

This is a dilemma. Apple, Google and Meta all make a virtue of their own lack of access to user content. Apple, by way of example, assures that “end-to-end encrypted data can be decrypted only on your trusted devices where you're signed in to your Apple Account. No one else can access your end-to-end encrypted data—not even Apple—and this data remains secure even in the case of a data breach in the cloud.” //

The argument against “responsible encryption” is very simple. Content is either secure or it’s not. “A backdoor for anybody is a backdoor for everybody.” If someone else has a key to your content, regardless of the policies protecting its use, then your content is exposed and at risk. That’s why the security community feels so strongly about this—it’s seen as black and white, as binary. ///

Oh the irony! The Chinese are exploiting the very backdoor that the FBI insisted that phone companies had to install, and the FBI is doubling down on having a backdoor into encrypted communication.