Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
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Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#2I'd say what he's really saying is that it is between governments and their citizens.
Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#3>"Baker said encrypting user data had been a bad business model for Blackberry, which has had to dramatically downsize its business and refocus on business customers. “Blackberry pioneered the same business model that Google and Apple are doing now - that has not ended well for Blackberry,” said Baker.
Baker is incompetent. Blackberry's primary advantage was its encryption. It branded itself as a business device and supported enterprise use. As bring your own device became mainstream and as the app store markets grew, Blackberry fell behind, failing to deliver the diversity of apps that iOS and Android did. Sales of devices fell and hence they've had to lay off 1000s.
TlDr; Baker has it wrong; Encryption was a business advantage for Blackberry, until access to a diversity of apps mattered more.
Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#4>"Baker said encrypting user data had been a bad business model for Blackberry, which has had to dramatically downsize its business and refocus on business customers. “Blackberry pioneered the same business model that Google and Apple are doing now - that has not ended well for Blackberry,” said Baker. Baker is incompetent. Blackberry's primary advantage was its encryption. It branded itself as a business device and…
Not to mention the news that Blackberry started giving Indian and Saudi Arabia governments access to their encrypted data actually hurt Blackberry's image in enterprise.
Also some countries are banning US tech companies now not because they encrypt stuff but because they give access to the US government to their citizens' data (including officials). Maybe it's true maybe it's not, but they have the right to question it and protect against it. If companies had end-to-end encryption and even they couldn't look at the data, I have a feeling those officials would trust them a little more.
I also find it hilarious that Baker is straight out suggesting "we should be more like China" when it comes to surveillance. How is he not being laughed out of the building?
Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak4ZwLU3aX0 is the raw video. I'm obviously a bit biased here, but I've always wondered if Baker actually believes his arguments or not.
Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#6[deleted]
Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#7>"Baker said encrypting user data had been a bad business model for Blackberry, which has had to dramatically downsize its business and refocus on business customers. “Blackberry pioneered the same business model that Google and Apple are doing now - that has not ended well for Blackberry,” said Baker. Baker is incompetent. Blackberry's primary advantage was its encryption. It branded itself as a business device and…
Blackberry is suddenly the posterchild for encryption? I thought Blackberry is this service where all your mail and communication is routed in cleartext through their services, a workaround from the days of 1G that they simply never got around to get rid of before smartphones flattened their business.
That is not encryption, if anything it is the direct opposite.
Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#8>"Baker said encrypting user data had been a bad business model for Blackberry, which has had to dramatically downsize its business and refocus on business customers. “Blackberry pioneered the same business model that Google and Apple are doing now - that has not ended well for Blackberry,” said Baker. Baker is incompetent. Blackberry's primary advantage was its encryption. It branded itself as a business device and…
Not to mention the news that Blackberry started giving Indian and Saudi Arabia governments access to their encrypted data actually hurt Blackberry's image in enterprise. Also some countries are banning US tech companies now not because they encrypt stuff but because they give access to the US government to their citizens' data (including officials). Maybe it's true maybe it's not, but they have the right to question…
Hm, maybe Apple can do that, but for Google not looking at the data is not an option, it's the core business. For facebook too. However maybe, just maybe, they can come up with a way to share with governments only a small fraction, protecting their customers/users. I don't see how, but their engineers are smart, they could figure out something that works.
It's not just NSA or the US here. These corporations are multinational, operating on many different countries. Once the NSA has officially stepped foot in Google's data so will do the EU, Japan, China, etc.
Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#9This is a fairly evolved astroturf argument which will likely be enjoyed by all powerful interests (government and private).
The battle is between powerful interests and the masses. The powerful interests gain a lot by controlling information and dissent. Surveillance is a useful tool to help achieve that.
Re: Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government
#10this and the FBI's crypto wars redux both appear to be designed to divert attention and resources away from understanding and addressing surveillance-related abuses using the classic and surprisingly effective strategy:
controlling the debate by defining its terms