How can the government protect public safety without access to keys that decode encrypted data?
Surveillance–the clandestine interception of information–is a vital national security tool to protect against terrorism in times of peace and to insure victory in times of war. Virtually all digital information and communication today can be encrypted, making it unreadable to anyone without a key, so that effective surveillance is difficult or impossible Encrypted information-codes and code breaking-have played a critical role in every war fought by the United States since the Civil War in the 1860s. Electronic eavesdropping has also played a critical role in national security and criminal investigations. Wiretapping was first used during a period of perceived national emergency-the first World War. Since that time, law enforcement has had a long history of reliance on electronic surveillance, particularly to enforce Prohibition and to investigate organized crime. Wiretapping laws include safeguards to protect a citizen’s right to privacy and to due process, including restricting wir
