I favor strategies that encourage industry to include some sort of key recovery capability in their systems which would also address user requirements for access.

Although cyber attacks have caused billions of dollars in damage and affected the lives of millions, few if any can be characterised as acts of terrorism.

However, leaving everything to the market is not necessarily good for society.

Systems are complex, so controlling an attack and achieving a desired level of damage may be harder than using physical weapons.

The concern is over what will happen as strong encryption becomes commonplace with all digital communications and stored data. Right now the use of encryption isn't all that widespread, but that state of affairs is expected to change rapidly.

I think most organizations have an interest in key recovery, at least with respect to stored data.

Further, the next generation of terrorists will grow up in a digital world, with ever more powerful and easy-to-use hacking tools at their disposal.