Bruce Schneier on a speech by Attorney General Barr on encryption policy:
I think this is a major change in government position. Previously, the FBI, the Justice Department and so on had claimed that backdoors for law enforcement could be added without any loss of security. They maintained that technologists just need to figure out how: an approach we have derisively named “nerd harder.”
With this change, we can finally have a sensible policy conversation. Yes, adding a backdoor increases our collective security because it allows law enforcement to eavesdrop on the bad guys. But adding that backdoor also decreases our collective security because the bad guys can eavesdrop on everyone. This is exactly the policy debate we should be having [–] not the fake one about whether or not we can have both security and surveillance.
Attorney General William Barr on Encryption Policy
Schneier still believes it is more important that everyone is secure than to provide backdoors to law enforcement, but at least everyone is starting to acknowledge the reality that law enforcement backdoors weaken security.