The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
1–10 of 130 posts
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#2The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption and Tell Congress About All the Encrypted Phones It’s Already Hacking Into
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#3I dont understand why the US people still trust these agencies. FBI, CIA, NSA have all shown to act against the democracy in many cases. If they could be trusted, they could be trusted with a backdoor. Since they cannot be trusted, the backdoor only makes them a more dangerous enemy of the people.
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#4I dont understand why the US people still trust these agencies. FBI, CIA, NSA have all shown to act against the democracy in many cases. If they could be trusted, they could be trusted with a backdoor. Since they cannot be trusted, the backdoor only makes them a more dangerous enemy of the people.
Nobody can be "trusted" with a backdoor, because it isn't really a valid concept.
A backdoor is a vulnerability that doesn't care who you are or what your purpose is or who pays you. If you found the backdoor it is open to you.
However hard the backdoor's security is, an insider recruited by Swedish intelligence (or Russia whatever the bogeyman du jour is) will leak the key at some point. Now all your "secure" shit can be accessed invisibly by Swedish hackers. By its very nature, the backdoor cannot easily be changed and its use cannot be detected.
A mundane example is the TSA keys. In addition to being leaked by greedy insiders making a quick buck, they've been leaked by accident several times. E.g. https://hackaday.com/2015/09/18/dear-tsa-this-is-why-you-sho... They are now public knowledge, and a backdoor into your luggage from anyone who cares enough to file up a key.
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#5> When the FBI says it’s “going dark” because it can’t beat encryption, what it’s really asking for is a method of breaking in that’s cheaper, easier
The way I see it, authorities all over have zero difficulty in breaking into devices (deus ex Cellebrite).
I always believe that any password we use (computers, phones, etc.) is only to protect us against the common criminal. Someone who will take your phone, and a strong PIN/password will only stop them from using your Apple/Android-Pay, read your emails, read your messages, etc.
If the gov wants to get something from you, then the gov will take something from you.
"Give up your password or go to jail: Police push legal boundaries to get into cellphones" (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/give-your-password-or-g...)
Also the Security by XKCD. (https://xkcd.com/538/) (in non-democratic countries, or really dark scenarios).
Also.. let's be honest, when the "default" on all devices is to "sync all with Google/Apple cloud", then there is minimal need to even alert someone to the fact that you need their data (e.g. by arresting them, confiscating their devices, etc.)
Just warrant+gag to Apple/Google/Dropbox/etc. and you got their "latest" backup easy-peasy.
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#6I dont understand why the US people still trust these agencies. FBI, CIA, NSA have all shown to act against the democracy in many cases. If they could be trusted, they could be trusted with a backdoor. Since they cannot be trusted, the backdoor only makes them a more dangerous enemy of the people.
What’s the alternative?
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#7> When the FBI says it’s “going dark” because it can’t beat encryption, what it’s really asking for is a method of breaking in that’s cheaper, easier The way I see it, authorities all over have zero difficulty in breaking into devices (deus ex Cellebrite). I always believe that any password we use (computers, phones, etc.) is only to protect us against the common criminal . Someone who will take your phone, and a str…
App updates has always struck me as the big one.
I can't turn them off, I can't easily validate them, and there's little preventing an update just for my device being shipped.
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#8Another argument against the "going dark" claim is that before smartphones and the internet, the only conversations the FBI could monitor was through phonelines and mail. These were known to be easily monitored and I doubt there was much more criminal activity happening through those then than now.
I would argue that the conversations that have gone online are the interactions that were previously happening in-person (at least in term of criminal activity), to which the FBI didn't have access before.
There is something Orwellian with the idea that there shouldn't be a word that can be pronounced in the country that the government cannot record and listen to after the fact. The limits of what is legal or not have always moved (see homosexuality, drug and alcohol consumption, etc). So a 100% enforcement of the law is counter-intuitively undesirable.
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#9I dont understand why the US people still trust these agencies. FBI, CIA, NSA have all shown to act against the democracy in many cases. If they could be trusted, they could be trusted with a backdoor. Since they cannot be trusted, the backdoor only makes them a more dangerous enemy of the people.
This is a wrong premise. The US people don't have to trust them, ultimately, their opinion is not important. What is important is that whoever currently is in power considers them useful - which is easy to achieve. And no political candidate who is likely to take office will take a stand against what in the end will be the tools they use once they are elected.
For the citizenry, the only way to deal with this situation is to avoid storing data, and hardening their devices.
Re: The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption
#10The FBI Should Stop Attacking Encryption and Tell Congress About All the Encrypted Phones It’s Already Hacking Into
I didn't realise this was the listed title of the article. I like it than "the FBI should stop attacking encryption" a lot better.