Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast: An Interview with Perianne Boring

In episode 109, we interview Perianne Boring of the Chamber of Digital Commerce on the regulatory challenges of bitcoin and the blockchain. In the news roundup, we bring back Apple v. FBI for what we hope will be one last round, as the San Bernardino magistrate voids her All Writs Act motion for mootness and attention shifts to other investigators hoping to crack iPhone security, both in the US and in Europe.

In a change of pace, I dip into the Hillary Clinton email scandal, wondering whether US intelligence agencies caught foreign spies exploiting Clinton’s unsecured emails on her first trip to Asia. Alan Cohn reminds me that using government networks wouldn’t have exactly guaranteed their security.

Kaitlin Cassel makes her first appearance on the podcast, explaining the FCC’s new ISP privacy rules. We all try, unsuccessfully, to figure out why the FTC is so sure it knows more about privacy and security regulation than the FCC.

Alan and I explore the flap over insider-trading attacks on BigLaw, and I wonder out loud whether the whole story is hype. What’s not hype, however, is a breaking story on the biggest data spill in history, which outs the hidden assets of everyone from Putin cronies to Icelandic pols.

The FBI’s reluctance to expose its investigative techniques to the world did not begin with the iPhone, I remind listeners; the Bureaus is fighting a court order demanding that it turn over its Tor exploit source code to a defendant in a child porn case.

And speaking of “privacy” tools that turn out to be mostly boons for criminals, the US government-funded Tor Project is sinking ever deeper into swamps of human depravity. According to Cloudflare, 94 percent of Tor traffic is per se malicious. And according to other sources, most of the remaining 6% is to child porn and other criminal sites. I’m not sure how many more privacy victories like that the tech world can afford. And if you were wondering whether that’s just a one-off, check out the remarkable story of everyone’s favorite encryption program – which it turns out was mostly created by a Deep Nerd who evolved into a no-kidding, murder-for-hire monster. But don’t worry. I’m sure there’s no connection between a burning desire for privacy and a burning desire to do things abhorred by the overwhelming mass of humankind. It’s probably just a coincidence.

As always, the Cyberlaw Podcast welcomes feedback. Send an e-mail to CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com or leave a message at +1 202 862 5785.

Download the 109^th episode (mp3).

Subscribe to the Cyberlaw Podcast here. We are also on iTunes and Pocket Casts!

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.