There’s a new term on the political scene you might have heard recently.

During a speech at the US Naval Academy on Tuesday, deputy US attorney general Rod Rosenstein, one of the most senior government lawyers, called on tech giants to embrace “responsible encryption.”

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“Contrary to Rosenstein’s inflammatory digs, strong encryption does help prevent crime, such as identity theft — something ‘responsible’ companies need to worry about at a time when massive data breaches regularly dominate the headlines,” said Riana Pfefferkorn, a cryptography fellow at Stanford Law School.

“Strong encryption does save lives,” she said, “something a ‘responsible’ law enforcement agency, charged with protecting and serving the public, might be expected to care about at a time when it’s open season on immigrants, Muslims, black and trans people, and anyone else who’s ‘other’.”

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“It’s a scary story just in time for Halloween, courtesy of the zombie encryption debate that just won’t die,” said Pfefferkorn.

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