<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>daveslash</author><text>Modern encryption is really just math. Cryptography in consumer and off-the-shelf products (which Barr is targeting with his discussion) theoretically _could_ be modified in such a way that the government could decrypt it. The two ways of which I can think are (1) Encryption &amp;quot;backdoors&amp;quot; -- fancy math known only to the government; this would require new encryption ciphers or (b) key escrow. Both approaches have their shortcomings and I&amp;#x27;m against both, but it&amp;#x27;s plausible that the government might try it anyway. All that said, because encryption is just math, any individual or group could employ their own encryption by implementing one of any known existing ciphers -- one without a known &amp;quot;fancy math back door&amp;quot; and refuse to follow the &amp;quot;key escrow&amp;quot; guidelines. In these discussions about the government being able to decrypt stuff, are we, in effect, suggesting that certain math be made illegal? If that&amp;#x27;s really what&amp;#x27;s being proposed, I&amp;#x27;d urge people to consider &amp;quot;Illegal Numbers&amp;quot; and how effective that&amp;#x27;s been. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Illegal_number&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Illegal_number&lt;/a&gt;</text><parent_chain></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Attorney General William P. Barr Delivers Address Conference on Cyber Security</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-keynote-address-international-conference-cyber</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>rplst8</author><text>Did he basically just announce a false flag?&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Obviously, the Department would like to engage with the private sector in exploring solutions that will provide lawful access.  While we remain open to a cooperative approach, the time to achieve that may be limited. Key countries, including important allies, have been moving toward legislative and regulatory solutions.  &lt;i&gt;I think it is prudent to anticipate that a major incident may well occur at any time that will galvanize public opinion on these issues.&lt;/i&gt; Whether we end up with legislation or not, the best course for everyone involved is to work soberly and in good faith together to craft appropriate solutions, &lt;i&gt;rather than have outcomes dictated during a crisis.&lt;/i&gt; &amp;quot;</text><parent_chain></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Attorney General William P. Barr Delivers Address Conference on Cyber Security</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-keynote-address-international-conference-cyber</url></story>