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Comment by tom_mellior | Hacker News Reader

The EU ministers do want us to have a right to encryption. They just want to be able to decrypt it.

Considering governments have about the same capacity to store data securely as a twelve-year-old, those decryption keys basically open up the door for everyone who is willing to put the effort into retrieving them.

And considering the retrieval would certainly be breaking at least a few laws, the people who are going to pull it off are going to be

- nation states

- APTs

- large criminal organizations

- large corporations (corporate espionage)

So you arguably defeat the entire purpose of having encrypted data streams. Sure, the barrier of going and "stealing the keys" is still there, but given the track record large governments have at not leaking data, it is safe to say there would be little barrier aside from legal ramifications if caught.

Like TSA luggage keys.... there's no way those would leak online, and no way anybody would be able to download them from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1687424 and 3d-print them... no way something like that'd happen!

Luckily, you can't 3D print an encryption key that would be useful in any way. Although, now I wish the guy from Lavabits had handed in his SSL cert as 3D printed letters and numbers like a puzzle.

There are many, many ways to print (escrowed) keys with a 3d printer... from punched cards, to "engraved" letters, to chains of 3d numbers, etc.

You can tattoo an encrypyion algorithm. Someone did that a long time ago with RSA: http://www.geekytattoos.com/illegal-tattoos-rsa-tattoos/

3D printing is one of the more useful ways to securely backup up encryption key’s. Just ensure the only place they exist is inside an object and not only are they durable, but tamper resistant as someone can’t just photocopy the key.

That would be a 2D print.

You’re 3D printing inside the object so people can’t just copy the number. Think envelope.

Could you elaborate on that? I couldn't find anything from a few Google searches.

3D printers can make solid objects with internal structures.

It’s the same basic idea as an envelope, as in you need to open it to see what’s inside. However, opening it up inherently breaks the object so if you have it unbroken then it’s obvious that nobody has done so. XRay’s being an obvious risk.

> Luckily, you can't 3D print an encryption key that would be useful in any way.

That's true, you have to rely on Sony executives to tweet them out instead. https://m.slashdot.org/story/147470

No you can just print a QR code of it on a 2D printer :P

That is not encrypted then.

You might be confusing hashed with encrypted.

They think it is.

Well, if everything is working as planned - it is encrypted in a way, that the economy and the people are protected against criminals, but everything is still in control of the government. That is the plan. And it makes sense, from their point of view. But their point of view usually comes from law schools and not technical universities.

Should we say that no building is really locked, since the fire department is alway able to force entry?

We are not talking about human habitats that are supposed to be transitable by design. We are talking about lockers within this habitat, that remain secure even if the house is burning, because you don't want thieves who arrive before the firedepartment to have access to your guns. It's a civil obligation.

"really locked" is using a wholy misused modifier. Neither are we talking about royal priviliges, nor the distinction to virtualized fantasy. The necessary capability of encryptian is effectivity. The effectivity of regular locks is indeed a matter of concern in the security industry to begin with, as lock picking sessions at Defcon make clear. But, if the fireman's axe shreds the frontdoor, at least there will be no denying that you have been literally hacked.

Scale and viability. Your fire department can't break force entry without notifying others in the area or do it to every building in the city.

Now digitally, that's not true. You can keep collecting data without anyone knowing at an unprecedented scale.

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