CIA Director John Brennan Pretends Foreign Cryptography Doesn't Exist

Last week, CIA director John Brennan told a Senate committee that there wasn’t any strong cryptography outside of the US.

CIA director John Brennan told US senators they shouldn’t worry about mandatory encryption backdoors hurting American businesses. And that’s because, according to Brennan, there’s no one else for people to turn to: if they don’t want to use US-based technology because it’s been forced to use weakened cryptography, they’ll be out of luck because non-American solutions are simply “theoretical.”

Here’s the quote:

“US companies dominate the international market as far as encryption technologies that are available through these various apps, and I think we will continue to dominate them,” Brennan said. “So although you are right that there’s the theoretical ability of foreign companies to have those encryption capabilities available to others, I do believe that this country and its private sector are integral to addressing these issues.”

Is he actually lying there? I suppose it is possible that he’s simply that ignorant. Strong foreign cryptography hasn’t been “theoretical” for decades. And earlier this year, I released a survey of foreign cryptography products, listing 546 non-theoretical products from 54 countries outside the US.

I know Sen. Wyden knows about my survey. I hope he asks Brennan about it.

Slashdot thread. HackerNews thread.

EDITED TO ADD (6/22): Herb Lin comments.

Posted on June 20, 2016 at 12:24 PM • 89 Comments