Re: Benefit of the doubt?
To me it sounded like he was trying to distinguish between a back door in the sense of a weakened crypto algorithm, and key escrow. A weakened algorithm can be broken by anyone with sufficient maths ability and computational power, so is a worse option. Key escrow can only be broken by whoever has the keys. Key escrow can seem like a viable option if you trust the keyholder to keep them safe.
That said, the quote, "There's been ideas around for decades that you should create some kind of key that law enforcement can get access to … that's not what we're proposing" could be a rejection of key escrow. But without details of what he is proposing it's impossible to be sure.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
