Some just never learn. How many times will they bring up this "let's make a backdoor but we don't really want a backdoor" stupidity?
Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
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Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#12The greatest problem right now is our hardware, not our software. We can always devise secure encryption schemes without backdoors. Nobody can do anything against it.
Our hardware on the other hand... is probably backdoored already.
Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#13Wait does he have a Masters in Information Security from the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology???!
Joking aside, unfortunately it takes deep problems to motivate people/the US to change. It'll swing this way, and there will be dramatic consequences. Only then will things swing back the other way.
It's too bad there isn't any balance here -- it does make sense in many situations that the police/courts should be able to gain access to information. But encryption doesn't care about the situation. Encryption doesn't care who you are. Encryption has no contextual morales of its own.
If data had physical weight, where things that were important we're really hard to steal, then it'd function like the real world. But data does not, and it's too easy to download gigs of data one should never have access to. It's very difficult to gain a middle ground as suggested by Pelosi. I don't know if she understands that.
Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#14The irony here is that simple one-time-pad solutions (OTP) will continue to be available to securely encrypt the sort of messaging that's of use to terrorists (relatively short infrequent messages), instead it's the general communications (including for banking) that the rest of us perform online that will be made vulnerable. You don't even have to program or use a computer to create these OTP solutions, for limited…
Convenience really does play a part here though. The easier it is to be secure the more people will take advantage of it. Good for the most part - but bad from the FBI's perspective when a criminal uses it to hide their misdeeds.
The likelihood for a criminal to use a one time pad is extremely low. The likelihood of them having an encrypted cell phone with useful information is much higher. It would be tough to argue that a law against cell phone encryption wouldn't be effective for this purpose.
More valid criticism is its disproportionate impact on lawful uses.
Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#15This is not a battle they can win. Most American's DGAF if their shit is encrypted, until the PSA campaign fighting against laws like these tells them the government is taking away their rights and able to snoop on their lives. Just like SOPA and others this will be defeated.
I would not be so sure of that. I really believe the President's guiding principle is to do whatever it is that will enrage liberals the most. If Republicans see that liberals want strong encryption, they might decide to oppose it just to piss off liberals. It's amazing to me that a lot of the same people advocating gun rights are also the ones that support government mandated encryption backdoors.
Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#16Encryption will never be intentionally backdoored on a large scale.
I think one of RSA argued this, basically "Do you really think the government will want to review and approve everything on the app store?"
Forcing big players to divulge data, making accused people decrypt their devices -- those are things the government could do. Encryption per se isn't in any danger.
Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#17Encryption will never be intentionally backdoored on a large scale. I think one of RSA argued this, basically "Do you really think the government will want to review and approve everything on the app store?" Forcing big players to divulge data, making accused people decrypt their devices -- those are things the government could do. Encryption per se isn't in any danger.
I don't think it is the encryption protocols at risk really. Secure protocols exist now, they will continue to exist. It is the future hardware implementations and closed source software implementations that we will no longer be able to trust.
Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#18This is not a battle they can win. Most American's DGAF if their shit is encrypted, until the PSA campaign fighting against laws like these tells them the government is taking away their rights and able to snoop on their lives. Just like SOPA and others this will be defeated.
It is worthwhile to fight the battles. But ultimately, there is no assurance that privacy will remain a legal right. I think that we need to be prepared for civil disobedience in some circumstances.
Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#19> ... "protected being being stolen."
repetition error.
Re: Americans' Access to Strong Encryption Is at Risk, an Open Letter to Congress
#20Wait does he have a Masters in Information Security from the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology???! Joking aside, unfortunately it takes deep problems to motivate people/the US to change. It'll swing this way, and there will be dramatic consequences. Only then will things swing back the other way. It's too bad there isn't any balance here -- it does make sense in many situations that the poli…
You make fun of someone for stating their credentials but you do the same in your profile. I guess your joke is that his credentials are laughable compared to the credentials of other people (e.g. MIT grads). Or is the joke that he stated it so clearly so early in the letter? I'm not sure.