Not that Congress needs help to be stupid … 

 
Line by line, how the US anti-encryption bill will kill our privacy, security

El Reg takes latest Burr-Feinstein legislation apart

Line by terrible line

Here at Vulture West we’ve gone through the legislation to see what exactly is in the bill. Here, for your delectation, are the worst bits:

All providers of communications services and products (including software) should protect the privacy of United States persons through implementation of appropriate data security and still respect the rule of law and comply with all legal requirements and court orders.

This is the crux of the issue. The senators want to have their cake – by requiring tech companies to protect their customers’ data – and eat it too – by insisting that law enforcement can break the code.
According to the best minds in cryptography this simply can’t be done – it’s not a moral or legislative issue but a mathematical one. Once you introduce a flaw into an encryption system, it’s impossible to stop others finding it, especially since you are mandating it is there by law and the prize is free access to all US data traffic, as evidenced in the Juniper case.

Burr and Feinstein don’t specify how this police backdoor could be managed and still protect data. Instead they have just said: “Here’s what we want – do it.” 

More at:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/13/burr_feinstein_antiencryption_bill_is_out/

As for the American public’s reaction, well that’s less certain. The US populace are largely complete pussies when it comes to terrorism and have – time and again – shown themselves willing to abandon hard-fought-for liberties whenever the T word comes up.

Good sense may prevail in the Land of the FreeTM, but don’t bet on it.
  

We’re doomed