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In two months, Donald Trump will walk back into the White House as president. Trailing him will be all manner of hopes and fears – not least among those who value their privacy.
While Trump has presented himself as a strongman and occasional enemy of social media giants like Meta and TikTok, there are some reasons to believe that neither he nor his DOJ picks will launch any kind of war on privacy or the encrypted apps that have been the target of criticism from law enforcement.
Stewart Baker, a former lawyer for the National Security Agency (NSA), said Trump is at once old school and libertarian when it comes to the so-called “crypto wars.”
“When tech companies hobble criminal investigations, his sympathies are with the investigators and the crime victims and decidedly not with the tech companies,” said Baker, also a former assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security. “But if the issue is cast as, say, the FBI trying to get new powers to intrude on privacy, his sympathies run against the FBI and in favor of privacy.”
Baker believes an FBI with an agenda to invade user privacy would likely prove self-defeating, with Trump against an overly invasive agency, unless there’s an investigation that warrants it. “I would certainly not advise the FBI to take the lead in raising the encryption issue, especially early in the administration,” he added.
There are those who are less hopeful, however. Cooper Quintin, a public interest technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed to the hawkishness of Bill Barr, Trump’s previous attorney general, who called for tech companies to install backdoors in their products. There’s also the EARN-IT Act, sponsored by Trump ally Lindsay Graham, which could strip tech companies of their immunity from legal action for users’ illegal behavior on their platforms if they weren’t effectively policing them. That would legally mandate the need for those businesses to know what’s happening across their service, requiring them to weaken or remove encryption, according to critics of the law.
“I don’t see any reason to think that a Trump administration would have a more liberal view on encryption this time around,” Cooper said. “My fear is that this time companies will be more willing to capitulate to Trump’s demands, which would be a disaster for privacy now more than ever.
“I see a lot of Silicon Valley VCs and execs throwing their hat in with Trump, so I’m worried they will be more inclined to capitulate to keep their stock up.”
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CISA Director To Step Down On Trump’s Arrival
Jen Easterly, the director of the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), will be stepping down from her role in January, once the new regime comes in, according to NextGov. Deputy director Nitin Natarajan is also set to leave.
Most recently, Easterly and her colleagues were busy protecting the election. Easterly claimed there had been no cyberattacks that had impacted the vote, as officials declared it the most secure election ever.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has reportedly been trying to get his name in the hat for the vacant position.
Stories You Have To Read Today
A hacker going by the name of Altam Beezley has stolen court documents allegedly containing damaging information about Matt Gaetz, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, according to a source for the New York Times. Gaetz has been investigated over claims he had sex with a 17-year-old at drug-fueled parties.
The LA Times reports on the case of Adam Iza, a crypto entrepreneur who allegedly hired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to act as bodyguards and help him target enemies. That included an attempt to pin drugs on a party planner who’d annoyed Iza as well as a colleague whom Iza believed had stolen a laptop, according to court files. At least six deputies have now been relieved of their duties, the publication reported.
The Justice Department and the SEC have taken action against Zhengming Pan, the former CEO of BIT Mining (formerly 500.com), over allegedly paying $2 million in bribes to Japanese government officials to secure a contract to open a resort and casino in Japan. The company has paid a $10 million fine, while Pan is charged with violating anti-bribery laws.
Forbes has a profile of Google Cloud CISO Phil Venables, who doesn’t just protect the tech giant from attacks, but, as a kind of “AI and cybersecurity whisperer,” is helping others prepare for the next generation of AI-powered hacks.
Winner of the Week
In light of concerns around surveillance under a Trump government, in particular around snooping on immigrants given the president’s promise to deport millions, Wired has put together a handy guide on protecting yourself from prying eyes. Encrypted communications is top of the list.
Loser of the Week
Heather Morgan, also known by her rapper handle Razzlekhan, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for her role in helping husband Ilya Lichtenstein launder Bitcoin. Morgan became infamous not just for her alleged role in the crime, but also for her rap videos and her escapades with Lichtenstein, a hacker who laundered billions from crypto exchange Bitfinex and was sentenced to five years in prison. Their life is soon to be turned into a Netflix documentary.
