Rogers cited the recent Office of Personnel Management hack of over 20 million users as a reason to increase encryption rather than scale it back. āWhat you saw at OPM, youāre going to see a whole lot more of,ā he said, referring to the massive hack that compromised the personal data about 20 million people who obtained background checks.
Rogersā comments, while forward-thinking, signify an about face in his stance on encryption. In February 2015, he said he āshares [FBI] Director [James] Comeyās concernā about cell phone companiesā decision to add encryption features to their products. Comey has been one loudest critics of encryption.
However, Rogersā comments on Thursday now directly conflict with Comeyās stated position. The FBI director has publicly chastised encryption, as well as the companies that provide it. In 2014, he claimed Appleās then-new encryption feature could lead the world to āa very dark place.ā At a Department of Justice hearing in November, Comey testified that āIncreasingly, the shadow that is āgoing darkā is falling across more and more of our work.ā Though he claimed, āWe support encryption,ā he insisted āwe have a problem that encryption is crashing into public safety and we have to figure out, as people who care about both, to resolve it. So, I think the conversationās in a healthier place.ā