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Modern field guide to security and privacy

How should the US balance privacy and national security?

Join a conversation featuring White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel on this crucial debate over how this will affect Americans and US enterprises in Washington, D.C. with Passcode and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

  • By Staff

President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, among other world leaders, have suggested that companies should not create IT products and services so secure that governments cannot gain access. 

FBI Director James Comey has gone so far as to criticize companies that build consumer devices designed without back doors for law enforcement, and one Justice Department official has labeled devices with strong encryption a “zone of lawlessness.”

But in a Passcode Influencers Poll released Wednesday, more than three quarters of cybersecurity and privacy experts disagreed with these leading government officials, arguing that consumer devices would not hinder law enforcement and intelligence agencies so much that it would harm national security.

While the Crypto Wars of the 1990's may be over, there are clearly more battles ahead. Join​ Passcode, the Monitor's new focus on digital security and privacy, and​ ​the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation for a panel to discuss how these proposed policies will affect consumers’ privacy and security, the implications for the U.S. tech sector, and alternative policy options that might strike a better balance the needs of law enforcement and robust security practices.

​The event will run from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 12. You can register for the event here or watch live above. 

To get you started, read event panelist and George Washington University Distinguished Research Professor Lance Hoffman on what nations should aim for in cryptography policy.

In addition, consider the argument advanced by Passcode contributors at Northrop Grumman and George Washington University's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security in this op-ed that fortifying the Internet of Things, particulary, means baking in security from the very beginning of the design process.

​Follow the conversation on Twitter with @CSMPasscode and @ITIFdc in addition to tweets from any of our outstanding panelists:

Michael Daniel, White House Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator 

Daniel Castro, Vice President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Bruce J. Heiman, K&L Gates Practice Area Leader — Policy / Regulatory

Lance Hoffman, Distinguished Research Professor, George Washington University

David A. O'Neil, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton

Amie Stepanovich, Senior Policy Counsel, Access

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