Exploring Encryption and Potential Mechanisms for Authorized Government Access to Plaintext

In June 2016 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened the Workshop on Encryption and Mechanisms for Authorized Government Access to Plaintext. Participants at this workshop discussed potential encryption strategies that would enable access to plaintext information by law enforcement or national security agencies with appropriate authority. Although the focus of the workshop was on technical issues, there was some consideration of the broader policy context, and discussion about the topics of encryption and authorized exceptional analysis frequently addressed open policy questions as well as technical issues. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.Table of ContentsFront Matter1 Overview2 Welcome and Opening Remarks3 Session 1. The Current Encryption Landscape4 Session 2. Use Cases and the Feasibility of Segmenting Encryption Policies5 Session 3. Security Risks of Architectures for Enabling Government Access to Plaintext6 Session 4. Technical and Policy Mitigations for Inaccessible Plaintext7 Wrap-Up SessionAppendix A: Workshop Statement of TaskAppendix B: Workshop AgendaAppendix C: Biographical Sketches of Workshop Planning Committee and StaffAppendix D: Biographical Sketches of Invited Workshop ParticipantsAppendix E: Acronyms and Abbreviations