Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The NSA Wants Tech Companies To Give It "Front Door" Access To Encrypted Data

Posted by samzenpus on from the let-us-in dept.

An anonymous reader writes The National Security Agency is embroiled in a battle with tech companies over access to encrypted data that would allow it to spy (more easily) on millions of Americans and international citizens. Last month, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple urged the Obama administration to put an end to the NSA's bulk collection of metadata. "National Security Agency officials are considering a range of options to ensure their surveillance efforts aren't stymied by the growing use of encryption, particularly in smartphones. Key among the solutions, according to The Washington Post, might be a requirement that technology companies create a digital key that can open any locked device to obtain text messages or other content, but divide the key into pieces so no one group could use it without the cooperation of other parties."

8 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Right up until... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A government body gets the whole key and then has it stolen from them and we're all left with our trousers down in a changing room made of glass.

    No. If there is an EASY way to decrypt information, then that data is NOT SAFE and the encryption is useless.

    1. Re:Right up until... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A government body gets the whole key and then has it stolen from them and we're all left with our trousers down in a changing room made of glass.

      No. If there is an EASY way to decrypt information, then that data is NOT SAFE and the encryption is useless.

      Yep. In the meantime, one of the few advantages US companies have - software and web services - will be made completely worthless. If I am a bank, healthcare company, or whatever (it really doesn't matter) , I demand my data be secure. An NSA back door, front door, trap door, barn door means that there is a built-in insecurity.

      Right now, I do not think any American made software is secure enough for my business. We have achieved a state where business and government concerns are in direct conflict.

      I think a lot of it has to do with this Big Data fad. They seem to think that the more data they have, the more computing power they have, and the less security we have allows them to "get their guy". We have an out of control security bureaucracy.

      But as the US slips more and more into a police state (I was just ordered last week to hand over my license at a road block - they were stopping everyone. Papers please! actually it was "hand it over, now!), I just have to wonder with our freedoms and privacy being eroded everyday, just what does the US stand for anymore?

    2. Re:Right up until... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Even if it were somehow perfect, the NSA has proven itself to be untrustworthy. It apparently can't even police its own staff to stop them spying on their girlfriends and wives, let along stop them walking off with huge archives of information. If Snowden could do it then I think it's reasonable to strongly suspect that the Chinese, the French and anyone else interested in that stuff has infiltrated them too.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Right up until... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can bet that if Snowden could get access then there are hundreds of NSA employees and contractors that are trading on this information. No domestic or foreign corporation or state wants the NSA to have unfettered access to their data like this, because such access will be and is being abused.

      Put it this way, say you are trying to get a contract where General Electric is a competitor. And someone in the NSA is tapping all of your salesmen's communications and documents and passing them to the GE's sales team....

  2. The NSA requests you stop sealing envelopes by mtrachtenberg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As you all know, our country is subject to terrible terrorist threats. It has come to the attention of your friends at the National Security Agency ("we put the security in the national") that terrorists have, under certain circumstances, used the United States Postal Service, United Parcel Service, and Federal Express in order to facilitate their terrorist doings. Therefore, we would appreciate it if, effective immediately, you stop sealing your parcels and envelopes, to make inspection easier.

    This is for your protection. Please don't object, or we'll have to illegally open your items and lie about it. Thank you.

  3. Disturbing this is even being openly discussed by JoeyRox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The fact that the NSA thinks it can achieve this shows how far our civil liberties have fallen.

  4. Re:Dupe. by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, but unless you have all the parts you can't get the whole story.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  5. Old German proverb by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ist der Ruf erst mal ruiniert, lebt sich's völlig ungeniert.

    It loses a bit in translation, but essentially the meaning is "once your reputation is ruined, you can as well stop having any shame".

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.