FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees Wednesday in favor of government access to encrypted communications. Encryption refers to the scrambling of communications so they cannot be read without a key or password. Comey invoked the threat of the self-proclaimed Islamic State to justify possible government backdoors into encryption software. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Dianne Feinstein questioned Comey about concerns raised by tech companies.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein: “And let me ask you to respond. This is another quote from this same letter: 'Requiring technology that provides law enforcement access to information also risks undermining the security of all electronic communications and digitally stored information,' end quote. Would you comment on that? As I understand it, what you would be talking about is some kind of front-door key? Is that correct?”

FBI Director James Comey: “Again, my reaction to that comment is, maybe, and if that’s the case, well, then I guess we’re stuck.”

You can go to democracynow.org to see our interview with Bruce Schneier, one of 14 leading cryptographers and computer scientists who wrote a paper opposing government access to encrypted data.