NSA’s director says Paris attacks “would not have happened” without crypto

Vice Admiral Mike Rogers told Yahoo News that crypto is "foundational to our future"--but it's also a royal pain in the neck.

In an interview with Yahoo News chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff published today, National Security Agency director Michael Rogers declared that the terrorists involved in last November's attacks in Paris used at least some encrypted communications to plan their actions, preventing NSA from being able to warn French officials in advance. Because of encrypted communications, he said, "we did not generate the insights ahead of time. Clearly, had we known, Paris would not have happened."

Rogers did not explicitly re-launch the campaign waged by FBI director James Comey to force technology companies to provide a "golden key" to encrypted communications. Rogers called encryption "foundational to our future" and added that arguing over encryption backdoors was "a waste of time." But he did say that encryption was making the job of the NSA and law enforcement more difficult.

The interview comes shortly after the FBI won an order requiring Apple to provide technical means to bypass the security measures preventing them from unlocking the iPhone 5C belonging to Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook, along with his wife, are responsible for the December mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

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