Give Up the Ghost: A Backdoor by Another Name This article was first published on Just Security . Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK’s counterpart to the National Security Agency (NSA), has fired the latest shot in the crypto wars . In a post to Lawfare titled Principles for a More Informed Exceptional Access Debate , two of Britain’s top spooks introduced what they’re framing as a kinder, gentler approach to compromising the encryption that keeps us safe online. This new proposal from GCHQ—which we’ve heard rumors of for nearly a year—eschews one discredited method for breaking encryption ( key escrow ) and instead adopts a novel approach referred to as the “ghost.” But let’s be clear: regardless of what they’re calling it, GCHQ’s “ghost” is still a mandated encryption backdoor with all the security and privacy risks that come with it. Backdoors have a (well-deserved) horrible reputation in the security community. But that hasn’t dissuaded law en...