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

Re:I don't think so.

[The Pim]

Criminals, on the other hand, will continue to use widely available crypto packages with no back door and will still be able to transmit messages without threat of law enforcement decrypting them.

Think harder: With carnivore, the government sees all traffic. They see crypto they can't break, they trace it with help from the ISP, they pay someone a not-so-friendly visit.

Please stop convincing yourself it can't work. It can work, and pretending otherwise will only make it more likely.

Damn IT

[mojo-raisin]

I am REALLY pissed right now. All I hear on the news media is "oh... we should find out why these people felt the need to attack us. And we should try to understand their point of view and see if we or they can change our ways." and "oh... let's all stop now and think critically before we have an escalation of bombing attacks with these terrorists."

FUCK ALL THAT. What have we learned in history? Appeasement doesn't work. These people are under the control of corrupt are bloodthirty wanna-be-dictators. There is only one thing to do. Start destroying them now.

When they fight back. Destroy those who fight back. The Middle-East is not a big place and we have infinite resources relative to them. It's time to start churning out the Tomahawks, engaging in 24hr surviellance and destroying anything associated with terrorism.

This is NOT a complicated situation. This is simple.

i think they are right

[The Killswitch]

I think they are right to do it. Without going into what is feasible or not, i think a backdoor should be implemented in cryptos. How else could the government be aware of what is going on? At some point, they need to know, even if it take some of our freedom. Anyway, why would someone need to use crypted messages, except for bank accounts and e-commerce? I fail to see any good reason.

so it may take some of our freedom in exchange for national security. It is an easy choice for me.

Specious argument

[Pope]

If everybody had a knife on those planes, do you think the hijackers would have even tried to take over the flight, if they knew everybody on board could cut them, or stab them.

And how many more drunken knife fights in bars would there be if everyone carried knives on a regular basis?

It's just like towns in Texas that everybody carries guns in, there is nearly no crime in those towns.

Prove to me that there's "less crime." How measured, per incident, per captia?
Keep in mind that those towns are pretty small. How would this make my city of 3.5 million people safer?

We've defeated suicide terrorists before

[CausticPuppy]

Remember Pearl Harbor?

The Japanese were just as fanatical-- the term "kamikaze" comes to mind.

As for the terrorists being considered martyrs by their people, well as far as I'm concerned, we will obliterate the very people that would consider these terrorists martyrs.
We're not just going to strike some military installations to limit their capabilities like we did in the Gulf War. This time, we are taking no prisoners. We are going to wipe them out. We are going to unleash hell upon the governments that have been giving terrorists safe haven as well. At least that's what I hope we do. Yes, there will be a few left since it's impossible to eradicate everybody who holds a particular belief and is scattered around several countries, and they'll naturally be plotting their vengeance, but they will no longer have the numbers, leadership, or capability to do their will.
They will no longer have governments harboring them-- because those governments will fear us. They won't fear us because of our threats; they will fear that we will do again in the future what we are about to do to them now.
The terrorists are about the learn the same lesson that Japan did 60 years ago, as expressed by Yamamoto:
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." He was right.

Japan as a military power ceased to exist after our devastating blow.
Get ready... this is it, this is the real deal, we are about to experience something that only existed in the faded memories of our parents or grandparents. Many Americans don't believe we have the guts or the capability, but that's only because they weren't around the last time we did it and haven't seen it for themselves.

Re:Mixed feelings

[Karn]

*sigh* YACT (Yet Another Conspiracy Theorist)

I know all you can think about is how 'they' are out to get you, but we are facing a very real threat here.

The US relies on it's intelligence to prevent disasters such as this. Even with our current intelligence, this was not prevented and now our govt. must quickly do anything and everything possible to prevent a 2nd disaster.

I do think back-doored products is completely pointless, especially when it is announced to the media.

They have to look at all options, but I do believe they will pass this one up, b/c it's just not going to help.

Re:New Hampshire

[-brazil-]

Also chock full of quotes supporting slavery and a lot of other not so nice things...