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UK Government Wants Private Encryption Keys
An anonymous reader writes "Businesses and individuals in Britain may soon have to give their encryption keys to the police or face imprisonment. The UK government has said it will bring in the new powers to address a rise in the use of encryption by criminals and terrorists." From the article: "Some security experts are concerned that the plan could criminalise innocent people and drive businesses out of the UK. But the Home Office, which has just launched a consultation process, says the powers contained in Part 3 are needed to combat an increased use of encryption by criminals, paedophiles, and terrorists. 'The use of encryption is... proliferating,' Liam Byrne, Home Office minister of state told Parliament last week. 'Encryption products are more widely available and are integrated as security features in standard operating systems, so the Government has concluded that it is now right to implement the provisions of Part 3 of RIPA... which is not presently in force.'"
Just stick a computer in the corner churning out encryption keys and mailing them to the UK government all day every day untill you break their database.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
isn't the whole point of a private encryption key.... that is in fact PRIVATE .. wait what's that noise outside? THEY'RE COMING THROUGH THE WALLS OMG NOOoo ;xd.fg.......
It's a good thing that, as an American citizen, I don't have to worry about these violations of my privacy.
My encryption key is:
1.....2.....3.....4.....5
Damn facist Americans! I am so glad that I live in Europe where such things never happen!
So is it that they want the criminals to hand over their passwords before they commit a crime? This should go well with the anti bank-robbery legislation requiring all would-be robbers to call in a schedule before they pull off a heist.
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
"Oh, yeah, you think that telephone call database is slick, check this sh*t out. We're gonna make our subjects give up their crypto keys or go to jail"
"Oooh, good one!" (high five)
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
When we outlaw encryption keys, only criminals will have encryption keys.
Get your stinking hands off my encryption keys, you damn dirty apes!!!
you're the worst troll I've ever seen.
"... they're effectively criminalizing the use of cellular phones" Hmmm, I'm beginning to warm to the idea.
Thanks for the list. I'll be sure to send a copy over to my buddy, George.
Sincerely yours,
Tony Blair
Developers: We can use your help.
But at least we have 37 types of cereal.
Are you counting the new Rice Krispies Berries?
$fortune
Tomorrow has been canceled due to lack of interest.
Just wait until they finish decrypting all the data files on my PC.
"You mean we spent four days decrypting Gigs upon Gigs of vacation photos??"
"Well, they have an 8 Megapixel camera, lots of memory cards and use RAW format..."
"But that's all you found? There aren't even any racy photos in the bunch?"
"Should we start decrypting the second RAID array?"
"The one labeled 'Project Gutenberg text to speech files in WAV format'?'
"Yes, that one."
"Go for it. I don't know what this 'Project Gutenberg' is, but it's got to be seditious. Plebeians don;t label anything a 'Project' unless they have delusions of being all 'Cloak and Dagger.'"
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Better yet: One key decrypts your regular files. Letters to grandma, pictures of your baby, etc. And the other decrypts your super secret terrorist plans. Both from the same encrypted volume.
Good idea. Then you can give up the key showing your terrorist plans and just get a few years in jail. They will never find your photo collection and your secret letters.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
It's not in YRO because in the UK we don't have rights, enshrined in a constitutional document, as do the people in the US.
Oh... wait a minute. This just in: Neither do the people in the United States, apparently. This appears to have expired somtime between Nov 2000 and Sept 2001.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
>Some douchebag swithces a few words around in a famous bit of prose and suddenly it's +5 interesting?
Yes, Grìma. Get over it.
I'm a political scientist by education.
Where does that put me in your example?
If only people were as familiar with the PATRIOT ACT, we might be able to have a reasonable discussion about the arious new laws affecting our lives these days.
Oh who am I kidding, this is slashdot.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Indeed, pedophiles are the debug mode for the Constitution
Man, can't you guys get the Queen to lock Blair up in the Tower(tm) or something? Maybe monarchy has some benefits...
The Constitution has been an endangered species since April 9, 1865, or possibly even much earlier than that, with the first "executive order" issued by a president of The united States.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
to .dll and put them in the windows folder. Finding them will be harder than breaking encryption.
Switching a few words around in a famous bit of prose: (-1, Douchebag)
Knowing which words to switch: (+5, Interesting)
Some things (+1, Funny) can't buy. For everything else, there's metamod.
Yeah, what started out as a noble crusade to keep Gary Glitter from making more albums wound up having horrible, unintended consequences, like when they brought those frogs to Australia.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Posting anonymously for good reason ;-)
Heard in my workplace recently:
Q: What's GCHQ's fax number?
A: Doesn't matter, just send it.