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An analysis of Section 3 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is a piece of UK law that, among a range of other things, contains a section that is meant to require the surrender of cryptographic keys to certain authorised parties (which are in effect instruments of the government). If such a request is made as part of an investigation, then the party who disclosed the key is not allowed to tell anyone that the authorities have that key or they face up to two years in prison. Equally, if the party fails to disclose the key, they also face up to two years in prison.

This is more sensationalist shit like the story about the RIPA. The law isn't very effective because the police can't force you to hand over keys that are used only to ensure the integrity of messages. This basically means that stuff like SSL, SSH and Zimmerman's Zphone are safe against seizure.

I submitted a story on this but obviously the Slashdot editors care more about exciting headlines than the sober truth. I wrote an essay in 2003 and you can read it here.

I've not read the act but I can already guess how useless it will be. The short and long of it is that it is very tough indeed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that someone that you put the software there. Believe me I know, I was a witness in a Child Porn case. The defence won because when we found the content we didn't follow CPS guidelines in the data recovery method.

Even worse, a hackers machine can look very much like a hacked machine. Hackers, after all, use one machine to get to the next. How are you going to prove they aren't the innocent bystander - BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT.

Yet more time wasted by an incompetent government that can't even deport convicted foreign criminals.

Simon.

I took a PDF print of the page. You can see it here

Simon.

Your most recent blog post talks of indecent images on someone's computer and you make images like this public?

http://www.ckwop.me.uk/ViewPicture.asp?FolderName= Creamfields2005&img=tn_IMG_0054.jpg

You sick pervert.

Technology changes the balance between victim and attacker. Fact. Occasionally, it is prudent to create new laws to redress the balance. At first, breaking into a computer wasn't a crime. The laws in many countries decide (rightfully, imo) to make this an offense.

The problem comes when the law makers don't really think through the consquences of the laws they write. The start with the assumption that criminals are dumb. Most of the time this is actually a fairly good assumption. However, it is a mistake to right off all criminals as being stupid. The people behind 9/11 were certainly not dumb and it's these type of people we are drafting laws to stop.

. The first question a legislator should be asking themselves when faced with a security decision is "How could an attacker make this law useless". On the subject of wiretapping the first thing that springs to mind is encrypting the connection. How can you wiretap an encrypted connection? Of course, they could try and use RIPA to get the keys off you but RIPA is badly drafted (as I discuss here) and can be circumvented easily provided you use a signed Diffie-Helman key exchange to determine the session key.

Give the fact that the law can be dodged completely it only serves to make us all less secure. It removes a check and balance from our society and opens up to abuses by the Police and other government organsiations. (As an aside, Law should be drafted in that they should fail in the safest possible way when being used by a corrupt Police force).

I'll finish this comment with a point I feel is important. In July, fifty or so people were killed by terrorists. That was the first major terrorist attack since the IRA declared a cease-fire and it was alost the biggest terrorist act in (recent) British history. As much as it is a tragedy that those lives were lost, is it worth changing the relationship between citizen and state for the sake of fifty dead? The same can also be said about 9/11 or the madrid bombings. Yes four thousand people were killed in 9/11 but four times as many die per year in US due to gun fatalities. In terms of a threat to the average citizen of any particular state, the threat posed by terrorism is right down in the noise level. It is my belief that a greater threat to our liberty is posed by the onerous legislation being passed worldwide than by terrorism.

Simon.

I look a bit drugged out here but still look a bit respectable..

I can't really grow a afro, as much as i'd want to. :) Gotta settle for mutton chops unfortunately..

Simon.

America has a choice.. (Score:3, Interesting)
by Ckwop (707653) * on Tuesday August 23, @05:11PM (#13383156)
(http://www.ckwop.me.uk/)

There's a saying that I hear a lot of religious people say: "You reap what you sow". Ironic then that in this case America gets precisely what it sows. You teach kids that ID is science and you get crappy scientists. You cut the percentage of GDP spent on RND and you get less nobel prize winners.

http://www.ckwop.me.uk/ is my site, it's a screenshot from my screen.

Simon.

And guess what, Firefox is going to keep growing! Why? Because IE7 is a rubbish. Before you mod this flamebait, let me explain why. Here is a screenshot of IE7 beta. Examine it closely. Here are my issue with it:

1. Where the fuck is the refresh button? After ten minutes you work out it's the little button next to the right of the URL entry bit.
2. Why is the menu Below the tabs. I find this inconsistent and confusing. Worst of all, there's no way to put it in it's proper position.
3. Have Microsoft dropped it's entire design team, the tabs look simply awful. That little grey bit to the right of the tabs allows you to create a new tab by clicking on it. That's fairly cool, but holy shit it just looks wrong.
4. The home icon on the left hand side of the screen is in that default position, unexpanded, where did my Favourites go or everything else go?
5. If this is it, what took so freaking long?

Seriously, this looks like it was designed by an amateur software development team. This is meant to be the Firefox killer? Firefox is showing that a monopoly doesn't guarentee you a browser monopoly. Is IE7 going to stop the rot? I doubt it very much. Firefox looks and feels better. Hats off to the Firefox team.

Simon.

A.) Getting drunk very much at 8.40 PM (UK time)..
B.) Obliterating your Karma destroyed for comedy value.
C.) Getting drunk on your 21st.
D.) Putting on a monkey thong bought by your female friend that ur girlfriend hates?
D.) Putting it on slashdot for the world to see?
e.) Priceless!!!!!!!!!!
f.) For everything else.. There's mastershaft.