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New Jersey Congressman Seeks To Bar NSA Backdoors In Encryption
Frosty P writes "Congressman Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, has proposed legislation (summary, full text) that would prohibit the agency from installing 'back doors' into encryption, the electronic scrambling that protects e-mail, online transactions and other communications. Representative Holt, a physicist, said Friday that he believed the NSA was overreaching and could hurt American interests, including the reputations of American companies whose products the agency may have altered or influenced. 'We pay them to spy,' Mr. Holt said. 'But if in the process they degrade the security of the encryption we all use, it's a net national disservice.'"
A law to stop the NSA? Yeah, that oughta do the trick. *rolls eyes*
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
If the NSA can get through a Backdoor, how do you know if a competitor or enemy is not getting in though the same backdoor?
but if you're worrying about the reputation of US companies, you're too late.
The fact (if it can ever be concretely proven as such) that the NSA has influenced the encryption algorithms to make them less secure has completely undermined the fundamental trust that was intentionally put in place to allow secure online transactions to occur. Without this trust, much of the value of the Internet is lost. SSL is based on a specific chain of trust from the browser all the way to the Certifying Authority and the entities that allow them to act as such. If this chain is indeed broken as is suspected, then there is a major problem that needs to be fixed.
This is a stupid idea. The 1976 consultation between the NSA and IBM over DES resulted in a stronger DES. The NSA couldn't disclose what it knew about how to easily attack the DES as it was originally proposed, and it took about 8 years for an academic researcher to understand why the original algorithm was actually weaker than the one with the proposed NSA modifications.
They are doing some rather asshole things at the moment (at the behest of the Federal Government - "We were just following orders"), but they tend not to screw with cryptography which is allowed to be on the GSA schedule when embodied in communications equipment for sale to the U.S.Military.
Is he permitted to hold his seat in Congress if he is in Gitmo?
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
When bad guys use encryption to conceal their activities, we need to be able to decrypt it.
The people in the NSA (and the government in general) are the "bad guys." Anyway, why are you so worried about a nonexistent threat? The government is more of a threat to you (as in, your individual liberties, and if you're one of the few who make them angry, your well-being) than these fabled "bad guys" who use encryption.
Crippling the NSA is not the answer.
Yes, it is; they're human garbage.
The real problem is oversight. FISA is little more than a rubber stamp for whatever the intelligence services want to do.
That's only part of the problem. You'll never have effective oversight unless the public can always see what they're doing, and even then, the public might just accept the injustices. Furthermore, even if we did have "effective oversight," we'd just have another TSA on our hands; in other words, an organization that quite openly violates people's individual liberties.
We need stronger oversight to protect the privacy of law abiding citizens, not a weaker ability to catch bad guys.
What do you suggest we do to catch these "bad guys"? Intentionally weaken all encryption? After all, if we advocate the use of strong encryption, these fabled "bad guys," who apparently aren't using it already, might use it, too!
The notion that I must weaken my own security and put up with blatant government overreach (and putting backdoors in encryption software is overreact) all to stop some "bad guys" is something I find disgusting.
Da derp dee derp da teedly derpee derpee dum. Rated PG-13.
Religious psychos don't need an invasion to provoke them. They kill people simply for disagreeing with them.
If you want an example of how getting a reputation for even the potential of embedded backdoors in your products can bite you, recall the ban imposed on Huawei network products by the US and Australia's National Broadcast Network. These revelations about the NSA's activities and US companies who roll over for them will definitely hurt sales of US products. I'll bet there are some marketing campaigns already being mulled over that would say, "Unlike our US competition, we aren't subject to demands from the NSA, and if they ever approach us, we'll tell them where to stick it." At least, that's what I'd be considering if I were a foreign telecom manufacturer.
Thanks for your efforts. But please remember that you have other, more effective tools at your disposal. The NSA has shown themselves a master in creative interpretation of law. Any new law will be twisted to their purposes. Then there will be years of appeals in the courts. Before you attempt new laws, you should immediately reassert Congress's most basic and irresistible power: The power to control the purse.
Your first act should be to slash the NSA's budget in half.
It is like working with a mule. First, you have to get their attention. As you slash their budget, explain that many of the NSA's actions have been dishonest. They have created long term problems for the rest of the country. And they have been spending their budget in ways that congress does not approve.
After you slash their budget, ask them to give the complete Congress a full accounting of how they intend to spend their remaining budget. Give them a week.
If they waffle or present an incomplete accounting, then cut their remaining budget in half.
Don't worry about the NSA. They have tens of billions of budget. You can cut their budget in half several times and they will still be able to support their best analysts. Their hardware is cheaper and more powerful than ever before. Even after the cuts, they will be as effective as any time in the past few decades. But, the cuts will remove their ability to dominate entire industries. And they will not be able to use that support to justify their illegal and unethical acts. And that is a good thing.
Above all, don't let the executive branch deter you. Controlling budget is your natural, constitutionally mandated role. Congress has been shirking their duties lately. The Black Budget has been a shameful abrogation of your responsibilities. Controlling the budget of the executive branch is your job. Don't let anybody talk you out of it.
It may take several rounds of budget cuts, but eventually they will come back in line. Then you can use law to guide them.