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DOJ plans to strike against encryption while the Techlash iron is hot

cyberlaw.stanford.edu

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Re: DOJ plans to strike against encryption while the Techlash iron is hot

#341

Post by banads »

dropoutcoder wrote: post #336
banads wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way is to share keys

Currently but maybe there’s another way Too much at stake Balance of power God bless America I’m concerned Programmer geniuses often can’t see the forest for the trees This one issue will have a profound impact on our ability to work towards a more civil society Hopeful that the geniuses will be willing to work towards a better compromise rather than simply resist on theoretical principles

>Programmer geniuses often can’t see the forest for the trees

Indeed, this is true. Likewise politicians often know nothing of how trees and forests actually work; and make absurd proposals which primarily serve their interests and pretend to care about a saving a few trees while endagering the entire forest.

Weakening everyone's security in order to weaken a small minority of criminals' security by default results in a net decrease in society's overall security

Re: DOJ plans to strike against encryption while the Techlash iron is hot

#342

Post by ColanR »

brokenmachine wrote: post #314
ColanR wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look forward to the day when one time pads are the norm for general encryption. A scifi novel I read, "A Deepness in the Sky" described how the pads themselves were a valuable item of trade. I don't think it's farfetched to imagine purchasing OTP data to use with internet browsing, the way we buy yubikeys to use with passwords. It would be a far simpler encryption scheme than those we currently use, and that simpli…

You'd have to have a OTP of the same length as the data you want to send/receive. So your mobile phone for example would need to have local storage the same size as all the data you ever expected it to send/receive.

Is that farfetched? It's trivial if you have a 5GB / month plan.

Re: DOJ plans to strike against encryption while the Techlash iron is hot

#343

Post by ColanR »

MarcScott wrote: post #315
ColanR wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look forward to the day when one time pads are the norm for general encryption. A scifi novel I read, "A Deepness in the Sky" described how the pads themselves were a valuable item of trade. I don't think it's farfetched to imagine purchasing OTP data to use with internet browsing, the way we buy yubikeys to use with passwords. It would be a far simpler encryption scheme than those we currently use, and that simpli…

One Time Pads are perfect, except for the rather crucial problem of key exchange. You have to meet your intended recipient irl at some point to exchange pads, and I don't fancy meeting up with every sysadmin who's server I want to access some HTML files from.

That's the point of my second paragraph. The pads would be an item of trade. You buy an 'OTP yubikey' with 2GB of otp data for each of the top 50 websites, plug it in, and you're good for a month. The website spends 10k on a petabyte of otp data.

Re: DOJ plans to strike against encryption while the Techlash iron is hot

#344

Post by 3pt14159 »

choward wrote: post #300
3pt14159 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh. Locks can be picked and doors can be rammed. Layered encryption is really hard to break and one time pads are impossible.

So locks are only good because they don't actually work? And encryption is only good if it doesn't work too? That logic kind of makes sense. However, locks at least delay intruders and make it harder for someone to go undetected if the break into your house. The intruder is either at your door for a little while, makes noise trying to break in, etc. If the police bust into my house there will probably be witnesses an…

They already have a great deal of power. Technological progress gives us all more power.

Re: DOJ plans to strike against encryption while the Techlash iron is hot

#346

Post by cpitman »

afrcnc wrote: post #345
cpitman wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which previous administration would you be ok with passing these laws?

Roosevelt

If Roosevelt enabled/required these back doors, what would stop all future administrations, including the current one, from doing what they want? IE, why is it any different for a past administration to make these changes compared to the current administration? Expansions of executive power tend to be permanent.

Re: DOJ plans to strike against encryption while the Techlash iron is hot

#347

Post by brokenmachine »

ColanR wrote: post #343
MarcScott wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One Time Pads are perfect, except for the rather crucial problem of key exchange. You have to meet your intended recipient irl at some point to exchange pads, and I don't fancy meeting up with every sysadmin who's server I want to access some HTML files from.

That's the point of my second paragraph. The pads would be an item of trade. You buy an 'OTP yubikey' with 2GB of otp data for each of the top 50 websites, plug it in, and you're good for a month. The website spends 10k on a petabyte of otp data.

So you can only securely access the top 50 websites, and need to go in person to buy the key.

That sounds like a beyond ridiculous system. We can do better.

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