Not complex at all
"requires urgent, sustained attention and informed discussion on the complexity of the issues "
The issue is not a complex one at all to understand -
(a) it is not possible to create a backdoored encryption system where only the 'good guys' have backdoor access. An encryption system is either totally secure or it isn't.
(b) democratic norms across the civilised world provide for privacy of it's citizens. They also provide that law enforcement can infringe on that privacy in certain specific cases (eg warrant based on probably cause)
(a) and (b) are diametrically opposed to each other and cannot both co-exist. It is absolutely simple. HOWEVER... simple does not mean easy. Because the combination of those 2 facts will lead to one of these scenarios:
1) 'public' encryption systems are backdoored. Law enforcement has access to everyone's data. Criminals also eventually gain access to everyone's data. Criminals run their own perfect encryption systems.
2) Strong and unbreakable encryption becomes the norm. People have complete digital privacy. Law enforcement has no access to anyone's digital files / comms, even if there is a signed warrant based on probably cause.
It's understandable why law enforcement don't want (2). It's just that they cannot see far enough to know that their insistence on backdoors is going to lead to (1) which is a worse scenario all around.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
