Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 219 posts

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#101

Post by aub3bhat »

wand3r wrote: post #97
aub3bhat wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh please whatever your opinion might be saying """ surprised anyone can still use the word "terrorism" with a straight face anymore """ Is quickest way to shut down conversation. Especially given horrific events in France, Ohio, Florida. Your argument is not only ridiculous its counter productive to anyone offering a balanced saner approach.

More people die of auto erotic asphyxiation than terrorism annually (~682 people). You're insistence is what is rediculous, as parent pointed out if it was a problem--it isn't; then 0 cases have been publicly thwarted via this technique. I don't buy in that this problem is large enough not that this solution would be acceptable if it was

Arguing deaths due to happened more frequently than terrorism in some time period is useless, if the underlying process that generates those numbers are widely different. There is no organized cult going around preaching auto erotic asphyxiation with explicit intention of causing large scale harm. On the other hand there are several organized terrorist groups which are intentionally trying to do that.

Unchecked Terrorism has non stationary distribution and can lead to deadlier events that are orders of magnitude larger. Further why pick a year and not a day? At any given day the number of deaths due to Terrorism are close to zero, except you know on a tragic day a decade ago in september.

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#102

Post by microcolonel »

> We have to figure out a way to optimize those two things: privacy and public safety.

Given how safe the public is, you'd think that this would mean "we need to focus on privacy". That is the public's priority. The FBI, whose mandate is abviously not to protect the privacy of citizens, is obviously going to advocate for the public safety, or more specifically his organization's degree of visible success in ensuring it.

Obviously the director of the FBI is not who you should be asking for a balanced recommendation regarding safety and privacy.

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#103

Post by aswanson »

aub3bhat wrote: post #82
grandalf wrote: post #30

From his perspective as the head of the FBI whose job it is to achieve outcomes within the law, of course Comey advocates encryption backdoors. He would likely also advocate allowing the FBI to suspend the bill of rights for any suspect during the duration of an investigation, and he'd quite likely prefer that the FBI be legally allowed to torture suspects if extreme techniques were viewed as likely to result in usef…

Oh please whatever your opinion might be saying """ surprised anyone can still use the word "terrorism" with a straight face anymore """ Is quickest way to shut down conversation. Especially given horrific events in France, Ohio, Florida. Your argument is not only ridiculous its counter productive to anyone offering a balanced saner approach.

You're more likely to die from a lightning bolt than a 'terrorist' attack. You're thousands of times more likely to die from bad driving habits or being overweight, so why is the terrorist bogeyman given so much concern in the political conversation?

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#104

Post by JustSomeNobody »

aub3bhat wrote: post #82
grandalf wrote: post #30

From his perspective as the head of the FBI whose job it is to achieve outcomes within the law, of course Comey advocates encryption backdoors. He would likely also advocate allowing the FBI to suspend the bill of rights for any suspect during the duration of an investigation, and he'd quite likely prefer that the FBI be legally allowed to torture suspects if extreme techniques were viewed as likely to result in usef…

Oh please whatever your opinion might be saying """ surprised anyone can still use the word "terrorism" with a straight face anymore """ Is quickest way to shut down conversation. Especially given horrific events in France, Ohio, Florida. Your argument is not only ridiculous its counter productive to anyone offering a balanced saner approach.

How many people die from terrorism in a year in the U.S.? Not many. How much money do we spend on it every year? Too Much. How often do politicians talk about it? Way Too Much. It's ridiculous. It is basically a non-issue here.

I bet the number of blacks killed by cops outnumbers the people killed by terrorists here in the U.S. Let's spend a trillion dollars fighting THAT problem!

edit: clarify

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#105

Post by mlindner »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #40
grandalf wrote: post #30

From his perspective as the head of the FBI whose job it is to achieve outcomes within the law, of course Comey advocates encryption backdoors. He would likely also advocate allowing the FBI to suspend the bill of rights for any suspect during the duration of an investigation, and he'd quite likely prefer that the FBI be legally allowed to torture suspects if extreme techniques were viewed as likely to result in usef…

Members of our government are so indoctrinated about stopping "terrorism" that they have lost all sense of perspective. In this case, it might be better to assume malice rather than incompetence. In the 1950's it was s/terrorist/communist/, but it was a remarkably effective political tool. We might be in the same situation. But this time, our fates are all linked. Once shipping backdoors becomes mainstream, it might…

Most people I've met who work in security at large companies would rather lose their job than participate in the erasure of security for all. Apple showed this pretty obviously, but I think many companies would have most of their software engineers quit before accepting such a request, even if it was a direct order. The government cannot order you personally to write software, that's blatant first amendment violations, even if they figure out a way to order a company to do so. When politicians see one of their largest corporations disappearing over night, and the associated loss of world power and tax revenue, from engineers quitting vs a police force trying to force things like this... I think there will be some reconsidering that would happen.

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#106

Post by mlindner »

aub3bhat wrote: post #82
grandalf wrote: post #30

From his perspective as the head of the FBI whose job it is to achieve outcomes within the law, of course Comey advocates encryption backdoors. He would likely also advocate allowing the FBI to suspend the bill of rights for any suspect during the duration of an investigation, and he'd quite likely prefer that the FBI be legally allowed to torture suspects if extreme techniques were viewed as likely to result in usef…

Oh please whatever your opinion might be saying """ surprised anyone can still use the word "terrorism" with a straight face anymore """ Is quickest way to shut down conversation. Especially given horrific events in France, Ohio, Florida. Your argument is not only ridiculous its counter productive to anyone offering a balanced saner approach.

Oh please, can you even look at what you're saying? Please look at some numbers before stating such ridiculous things.

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#107

Post by pavement »

FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #35

So, the NSA and the CIA were recently hacked, yet these numbskulls think we can create a system that will only be accessed by "the good guys" How many hacks, leaks etc will it take for them to understand that if this passes, that will be the end of online security? New Rule: If you want to propose cybersecurity legislation, you need to pass the fizz buzz test.

  they think we can create a system only available to them
Because there are civilian consumer systems, and state apparatus systems. The civilian consumer systems just leave shit out in the open, all over the place, and make a mess, with no obligation to common, clueless people.

Everyone knows that no effort is made to retain military operational security for sloppy, undisciplined non-combatants.

Anyone with clearance to actual hardened systems, sees a clear difference from the other side of the wall, and questions why the charade must go on, when it'd be so much easier to dispose of the pretense that there's "privacy" to be had, and see investigations forced to prosecute with so much parallel construction.

The state apparatus systems, in their minds, deserve preservation of secrecy, because it puts the owners at an advantage. They seek advantage by crippling consumer civilian systems. This is the line of reasoning from their perspective. Render outsiders defective. Create real systems for themselves. Maintain authority by denying useful systems to unknown quantities.

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#108

Post by JustSomeNobody »

bingomad123 wrote: post #78
grandalf wrote: post #30

From his perspective as the head of the FBI whose job it is to achieve outcomes within the law, of course Comey advocates encryption backdoors. He would likely also advocate allowing the FBI to suspend the bill of rights for any suspect during the duration of an investigation, and he'd quite likely prefer that the FBI be legally allowed to torture suspects if extreme techniques were viewed as likely to result in usef…

> Comey is a symptom of the kind of cowardly, authority-respecting society we've become. I am an Indian citizen living in USA and I think American society must take the blame here and not the politicians. The way society thinks and votes I think only a total narcissist moron can succeed in US administration. The fastest way to rise to top (as we saw in case of Obama and Trump) is to find some target group and blame t…

> The fastest way to rise to top (as we saw in case of Obama and Trump) is to find some target group and blame that group for the failure of other larger society. The larger society is far too quick to raise pitchforks and burn the other group at stake.

Yes, we are very much a blame society. It is the Republicans fault. It is the Democrats fault. It is my neighbor's fault. It is my parents' fault. Blame blame.

Re: FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill

#109

Post by HappyTypist »

mlindner wrote: post #105
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Members of our government are so indoctrinated about stopping "terrorism" that they have lost all sense of perspective. In this case, it might be better to assume malice rather than incompetence. In the 1950's it was s/terrorist/communist/, but it was a remarkably effective political tool. We might be in the same situation. But this time, our fates are all linked. Once shipping backdoors becomes mainstream, it might…

Most people I've met who work in security at large companies would rather lose their job than participate in the erasure of security for all. Apple showed this pretty obviously, but I think many companies would have most of their software engineers quit before accepting such a request, even if it was a direct order. The government cannot order you personally to write software, that's blatant first amendment violation…

And then you look at how many people who works for Facebook.
Post reply on HN