Five-Eyes nations to force encryption backdoors | Hacker News Reader

Five-Eyes nations to force encryption backdoors

itnews.com.au

43 pointsoctosphere11 comments

HN post from yesterday https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17898498

I know I'm preaching to the choir here but... I'm glad all those law abiding criminals and terrorists will only use government sanctioned services with the back doors in. They'll never think about using anything else. Oh wait. They will. So all the government will be spying on will be law abiding citizens. So when the system is inevitably breachrd, only law abiding citizen will have their data expossed. The people pushing this are either very smart, very stupid, or a mixture of the both wth the smart channeling the stupid.

It's worth pointing out. I don't think all the people pushing this are stupid. I'm sure some are, but there are plenty of 'clever' ones who are comforted by the thought that, under whatever guise, their citizens are monitored. I am pessimistic enough in these matters to believe in a kind of reverse Hanlon's razor.

My basic stance at this point is that, even with the best justification in the world for breaking encryption, governments cannot be trusted to safeguard keys.

They WILL be stolen by adversaries. Full stop.

Key escrow proposals don't "work" unless you outlaw encryption schemes that don't opt in to the escrow. Key escrow's weakness is certainly bad. But it's much worse that you can no longer be free to execute these mathematical concepts. Can you even discuss them freely in a world where the implementation is outlawed?

You don't need full sized, nor declared, adversaries. NSA workers, and associated private contractors have lost, leaked or even published backdoors and other very private information in the not so far past, along with questionable security practices in their own computers. Individuals, criminal organizations, corporations and so on will get pretty soon access to those backdoors, and that is something that will impact everyone.

Better link:

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/national-security/five-...

Relevant text here would be:

""" Encryption

18 Encryption is vital to the digital economy, a secure cyberspace and the protection of personal, commercial and government information. The five countries have no interest or intention to weaken encryption mechanisms. We recognise, however, that encryption, including end-to-end encryption, is also used in the conduct of terrorist and criminal activities. The inability of intelligence and law enforcement agencies to lawfully access encrypted data and communications poses challenges to law enforcement agencies' efforts to protect our communities. Therefore, we agreed to the urgent need for law enforcement to gain targeted access to data, subject to strict safeguards, legal limitations, and respective domestic consultations. We have agreed to a Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption (https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/national-security/five-... ) that sets out a framework for discussion with industry on resolving the challenges to lawful access posed by encryption, while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. """

Let me clarify the phrase "targeted access to data", as we already know what that means — a good example sits right in front of us. The current NSA wiretaps and massive information gathering operations including wiretaps, fiber optic splices, and equipment installed at network exchange points are what is understood by "targeted access to data".

> A free, open, safe and secure internet

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

We can hope that the LEOs who propose these regulations hold limited sway against the legislators who we elect to represent our will.

EDIT: downvoters, please join the debate.

Wasn't this settled by djb? The US government can't punish you for publishing encryption software because it is protected by the first amendment.

Sadly other countries (I'm in the UK) don't have such protections.

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