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Indian Government Threatens RIM, Skype With Ban
gauharjk writes "India's Department of Telecommunications has been asked by the government to serve a notice to Skype and Research In Motion to ensure that their email and other data services comply with formats that can be read by security and intelligence agencies, or face a ban in India if they do not comply within 15 days. A similar notice is also being sent to Google, asking it to provide access to content on Gmail in a readable format."
Glad I don't correspond with anyone in India.
Yeah, you're doing it wrong. Just use MITM DNS attacks to use fake SSL certs.
Love, China.
Bank robbers usually escape in cars so maybe we should ban automobiles to cut down on the number of bank robberies! Its' the same logic.
The Bush administration violated a few constitutional laws in its effort to close the barn door after the terrorists had burned the barn down. They wanted to impress upon us how earnestly they believed in thwarting the terrorists, so they decided that we needed to give up our rights so that they could score political points.
But, as everybody knows, the Bush administration had more than enough information to do the job long before the terrorists ever hit us. What was needed isn't more information, what was needed was better use of the existing information. (Notice that I'm not using the word intelligence. Clearly, Bush needed more intelligence, but that would not be forthcoming.) But we can expect our leaders to make lazy, self-serving choices rather than to take on the hard jobs they seemed to want so badly.
India is an authoritarian state, perfectly comfortable with internal corruption and cronyism. This choice, to compel telecommunications businesses to open up their data for 'security and intelligence' agencies, will surely be abused for political reasons and its impact on security will be marginal.
Best regards.
Bank robbers usually escape in cars so maybe we should ban automobiles to cut down on the number of bank robberies! Its' the same logic.
To be fair, the automobiles have 15 days to comply with publishing who is in the car and coordinates of all travel.
"Persistence is annoying success." - ghee22 11:28:1999 - 10:53:PM
they have no right whatsoever to read email traffic. Terrorists have officially won as government is leveraging attacks to increase their power over all. Wake up people, government is the problem. Terrorists, even when very successful, effect a tiny percentage of a population. Yet, the government grows more powerful over all in order to supposedly protect the population. This is about control, not protection. Such a shame that so may are willing to throw away their rights in the face of terror. The terrorists have won. Now they are fighting over who will control the levers of power. The citizens have already lost all liberty.
Because using ducks or oranges in a bank heist would be too hard to understand.
Yeah, but wouldn't that be awesome?
ROBBER: OK, everybody on the floor- I have a duck here, and I'm not afraid to use it!
TELLER: Umm... [trembling] Uh... um OK... [looks around nervously]
ROBBER: [Hurls orange netted plastic bag at teller] Now fill this! Now! And no dye packs! [Waves duck threateningly]
DUCK: [struggling] Quack! Quack quack!
TELLER: Yes sir, whatever you say... [frantically starts packing the bag with oranges]
DUCK: Quack!
Suddenly a loud alarm pierces the air. The robber jumps onto the counter and grabs the bag; loose oranges fly everywhere. He makes a mad dash for the exit. but finds that the doors are locked.
ROBBER: Fuck!
Kicks door repeatedly, then swings the bag of oranges at the glass; which disintegrates in an explosion of glass shards. A dye pack hidden among the oranges goes off.
ROBBER: You fuckers, I said no dye packs!
TELLER: Uh, honest, I didn't know... well look sir, it's orange dye anyway...
Robber throws duck at the teller, then struggles through the broken glass.
DUCK: [enraged] Quack quack! Quack quack! Quack quack quack!
TELLER: [screaming] Aaagh- it's a duck on me! Help! Duck! Please!
New scene. Several minutes later- first police officer enters the bank.
COP: Watch it- duck! [Pulls pistol, fires round at duck]
DUCK: Quack!
Several seconds of silence...
TELLER #2: Wow- thanks... what a relief! How did this guy get his hands on a duck anyway?
COP: We try to stop them when they go through the airports, but now they're starting to hide the ducks up their asses as they go through security.
TELLER #2 What do you do when you find someone trying to sneak a duck into the country?
COP: Well, the first thing you need to do is get some Dawn dishwashing detergent...
Do you think it is really about fighting terrorism?
The British government justified spying powers "to fight terrorism", but they were actually used to fight minor offences (dog fouling, fly-tipping, government employee false sickness claims).
Just like the British government, the Indian government cannot really say they need to compromise human rights to make it cheaper to police minor offences, or too keep an eye on people doing perfectly legal things the government and police disapprove of (which also happened in Britain).
What keeps countries like India poor is the corrupt politicians. India can afford to build a nuclear arsenal but they can't manage to provide clean water to all of their people? That's India's fault and no-one elses'.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.