US and European officials reignite 'back door' encryption debate after Paris
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/18/us-europe-reignite-debate-back-door-encryption-paris-attacks Privacy advocates have called the renewed discussion of encryption back doors inexcusably cynical and said that back door access would doubtless be used immediately by criminals and indeed terrorists. "A sophisticated terrorist organization will be thrilled at the presence of weakened encryption and backdoors into encryption, because we know from every reputable computer scientist that there's no safe way to do it that will not be vulnerable to hackers," said Lauren Weinstein, a privacy advocate who worked on Arpanet, the ancestor of the modern internet. "We're talking about the same government that's proven itself unable to protect the information of its own citizens, and we're not talking a few people; we're talking millions." ... Weinstein said that there was simply no way to make a backdoor "key" that only worked for the "good guys". "If there was a scientifically provable way to do this, we could have the discussion, but it doesn't make sense to have the discussion when everybody who's looked at this and is honest about it says that it would make us more vulnerable when those systems are subverted," he said. "Magical thinking is a really good term for this. They say, 'Golly gee, if only!' That if-only doesn't exist." // - - - Be sure to check out the Bizarro English version of this story at: http://www.datacentremanagement.org/2015/11/us-and-european-officials-reignite-back-door-encryption-debate-after-paris/ where I'm identified as a "remoteness disciple." That's a first, but I think I like it. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so. My opinions expressed here are mine alone. _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad
