Congress Considers Mandatory Crypto Backdoors

disappear writes: "Wired news reports that Congress is considering restrictions on crypto software in the wake of the terrorist attack. 'Nuff said." This will be the next battle -- especially in the wake of this week's tragedies, and the the allegations that the prime suspect Osama Bin Laden is a heavy crypto user. The battle of privacy and safety is going to begin in earnest now.

Comments

They can, rather easily- make crypto criminal.

[Nonesuch]

The concept is that if you are caught using non-backdoor-enabled crypto software, then they don't need to prove that you are a terrorist, they can just throw you in jail for a few dozen years based solely on the easily proven charge of 'possession of illegal munitions (crypto)".

IMHO, this is just one more step towards a police state.

This was inevitable, but it's still sad...

[FangVT]

In a floor speech on Thursday, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) called for a global prohibition on encryption products without backdoors for government surveillance. "This is something that we need international cooperation on and we need to have movement on in order to get the information that allows us to anticipate and prevent what occurred in New York and in Washington," Gregg said, according to a copy of his remarks that an aide provided.

This is base grandstanding by a politician in the wake of tragedy. Saying that it needs international cooperation is tantamount to admitting that it can't be done and setting up to blame the rest of the world when it fails.

The constitution was written by a group of people that had visceral knowledge of what it means to need a revolution, in the bloodiest sense of that word. Our modern laws would be a lot better if they were informed by that same knowledge.

Re:Independant Crypto Software

[reverius]

"Stenography which is the clear alternative to encryption"...

umm, "stenography" is "The art or process of writing in shorthand." according to dictionary.com.

I think what you meant was "steganography", which is "The art of writing in cipher, or in characters which are not intelligible except to persons who have the key; cryptography.".

Re:Heavy crypto user?

[Glytch]

I wasn't saying anything about computers in the third world. I was referring (which I should have pointed out, now that I think about it) to an interview on CBC today of a journalist who is one of the few westerners to ever personally interview bin Laden. This man (forgot the name) recounted the three times he had seen bin Laden. When he described their last meeting in Afganistan, he was carrying a several newspapers. Bin Laden saw them, grabbed them, and sat in a corner to read through them all because he was so out of contact with the rest of the world.

BTW, did anyone else see the interview? I'd like to get this guy's name. It was on Newsworld about 3pm AST, I think.

Re:Mixed feelings

[jdriller]

Pledge so just used in emergencies? Ha ha ha...
My x brother in law wrote an article in left wing Z magazine about the special federal circuit court that is specifically set up to approve wire taps. I forget the year and the exact numbers but they rejected something like 4 out of 23.7 THOUSAND. We ALREADY have a guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure and right to liberty. It is the basis of all our law. It is the Constitution. Pledge of restraint and honesty? You have me rolling on the floor!!!
Oh, and by the way he had a white van outside his house for a week - night and day. My nieces even brought the spooks cookies....yeah, and he was a real threat. He is a newspaper sports writer mostly.

We MUST lobby against this

[foxxtrot]

As others have already notices Bin Laden did two things, avoid electronic communication, and when he did use crypto, he certainly wouldn't be using back-doored software. So essentially, himself and the other terrorists wouldn't be slowed down, our American civil rights would be violated however.

Alright, now to the non-reduntant part of my post. On Tuesday, Tom Clancy was on CNN in the afternoon. CNN had Tom, because Tom wrote a book about terrorists chrashing a plane into the Capitol building, and killing both houses of Congress, and the President. Well, Tom said that the real problem we had in not seeing this coming is that the CIA employs some 20,000 people, and only about 800 of them are spooks. The only way to fight terrorism effectively is with a large, well-trained intelligence corps. We need at least twice, if not three or four as many spooks out in the field, infiltraiting these terrorist groups, so that we are aware of these plans before they something like Tuesdays events happen.

Cryptography isn't our problem, an incredibly small spy system is.

foxxtrot

French tried - it backfired

[horza]

The French don't trust their citizens and for years banned all encryption (except some businesses, with them having to hand over keys). They may have, as you allege, used the intelligence in an underhand way. However, I think your reason for 'relaxing' their stance on encryption is mistaken, or only part of the reason. Upon discovering all about Echelon, and the extent to which the USA have been gathering intelligence on French business (and allegedly lost billions due to NSA handing key data for US businesses), it brought about the greatest 180 degree turn in crypto politics seen to date. From a complete ban to full support of strong encryption, with the encouragement of open-source software. To think things had steadily been improving since this article 2 years ago. It would be a blow to the memories of those lost if their sacrifice failed to make the world a better place.

Phillip.