Goal Defines Intelligence?
'investigating conventional crimes rather than national security or terrorism-related investigations, where the use of crypto might be expected'
Where did that mess of an idea come from? The idea that terrorists are somehow more technically savvy than any other sort of criminal is, at best, not well thought out. At worst, that idea demonstrates that government anti-terror, 'surrender your freedom to be safe from those who hate your freedom', propaganda works. That idea also completely justifies the comprehensive, end-to-end government surveillance that maximizes the chances of State Actors intercepting clear text and/or encryption keys. The sort of surveillance that has been such a large topic over the last year.
None of that is intended to be a swipe at John Leyden or The Register, not at all. But I do want to demonstrate that it's really easy to end up waving a banner and advocating for things without meaning to. It's really easy to do that because a not insignificant amount of your tax dollars is spent on the best social science and engineering money can buy.
Messaging 101 dictates that Message appeal, uptake and self sustained promulgation are the greatest when the content of the Message is generated by the target audience within a broad framework defined by the Message Originator. In the context of this story, the government says 'Terrorists are Coming for YOU, but we're looking for them' and other people dress that up in ways that go straight to the people they know how to reach.
Putting terrorists up on a pedestal as some sort of advanced criminal is just silly. It's an emotional ejaculation that mistakenly equates the capacity for atrocity with evil super genius. People don't like to think they are surrounded by people who lack only the willingness and motivation to cause great harm, but they are. Being a terrorist doesn't require special skills or access to restricted technologies or large financial resources or knowledge of and access to secure communications equipment (those are the prerequisites for being a politician). Being a terrorist just requires one to be a dick. A dick with criminal intent and a shocking lack of exposure to anecdotes involving amputating noses to spite faces. There's nothing special about them.