The U.S. government's been trying to stop encryption for 25 years. Will it win this time

"Today, government access to encrypted communications through a mandated backdoor is not the law of the land in any single country. But laws requiring varying degrees of government access to encrypted communications are becoming more common, said panelist Riana Pfefferkorn, associate director of surveillance and cybersecurity at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society. 

Following the panel discussion, Pfefferkorn said she sees a growing trend, especially in the United States and India, to tie serious liability issues, in both criminal and civil law,  to the encryption debate. 

"In the U.S., it's child pornography. In India, it's the threat of mob violence," Pfefferkorn said. "They seem like two separate issues, but they're a way of encouraging the regulation of encryption without regulating encryption. 

"They're going to induce providers to stop deploying end-to-end encryption lest they face ruinous litigation," she added. "It feels like a bait-and-switch.""