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FBI Slammed On Capitol Hill For "Stupid" Ideas About Encryption
blottsie writes: At a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, the FBI endured outright hostility as both technical experts and members of Congress from both parties roundly criticized the law enforcement agency's desire to place so-called back doors into encryption technology. "Creating a technological backdoor just for good guys is technologically stupid," said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), a Stanford University computer science graduate. "That's just stupid. Our founders understood that an Orwellian overreaching government is one of the most dangerous things this world could have," Lieu said.
At the risk of being down-modded: ... it is the people that allow them to get away with this stupid shit in the first place.
How stupid must your plan be if politicians actually call it stupid?
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
No, the founding fathers had seen some pretty bad behavior from kings and tyrants, and were people who understood the big picture.
They certainly didn't anticipate everything, but they sure as hell tried to lay the groundwork for trying to formulate how to prevent this crap.
And then people got all scared and lost their shot and decided "oh, fuck all those constitutional protections, we're scared".
The problem with the FBI is they moronically believe that if they poke holes in crypto that it would still have any value. Because they're too fucking concerned about getting this information they can't stop to think that if there are holes for them, there's holes for anybody else to use.
What the FBI et al are basically saying amounts to "everybody should leave their house unlocked in case we need to go in, and we will go 'la la la' and pretend that nobody else will do this".
The FBI are either collectively too fucking stupid, or too fucking fascist to comprehend that crypto only really works if you don't punch holes in it.
But, hey, between law enforcement hiding how often they use that Stingray thing, and the "manaul of institutional perjury" which is parallel construction -- maybe it's time we stopped treating them as anything but a corrupt organization which needs a serious culling?
Fire 'em, arrest 'em, hang 'em -- it doesn't matter. These clowns have decided the law doesn't apply to them, so they don't deserve to be treated like the good guys.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Agencies like the FBI, CIA and NSA have long relied on the general ignorance of the public, and even of Congress, on various technical matters. Further, they had their claws into academia and were thus capable of controlling the dissemination of information in regards to technical matters. These agencies still believe they are dealing with various kinds of ignorant rubes who will believe any technobabble their representatives care to spew. But this isn't the fertile ground for their particular brand of bullshit. The IT world is dominated by people of a rather different mindset, and while companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple couldn't really be regarded as friends of liberty, what they are is highly protective of their revenue streams. Crapola plans like encryption back doors and universal spying on their traffic is already damaging these companies' international reputations, and risks undermining many years worth the work of selling their platforms to foreign buyers.
And this, as sad is it is, is why these agencies will lose. Not because any of the Captains of IT Industry or anyone in Congress gives a flying fuck about liberties, but because it poses a threat to profits. I guess the little guy has to accept that the enemy of their enemy is their friend, and hope the IT companies win the day, but what bothers is that we may win the battle, and lose the war, simply because instead of a bunch of government spooks spying on every bit that gets transmitted over the Internet, we'll have a bunch of corporate spooks.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Oh, I think that they understood the concept very well. It's not exactly new; the Romans used it as did the Greeks in a few cases.
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I despise people of any political persuasion making fun of any other side. I have Republican friends who have quoted the same line, and I call them on it whenever they do. I also have Democratic friends who refer to the other side by various names such as "Republitards" and I call them on it as well.
We cannot have any kind of discussion as long as we're hurling insults at each other. We can disagree--even vehemently--but the moment we start telling the other side that they suck is the point where we start closing off discussion based on basic human emotional response.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
This story reminds me that it's time to go throw the EFF another $20.
https://www.eff.org/
You are welcome on my lawn.
Did you not see the recent scandal about the FBI forensic lab techs who lied on the stand? One guy's hair was matched to a fucking dog.
Have you seen your state government recently? Specifically, have you seen the state governments that are purporting to do the "small government" routine? Kansas? New Jersey? Wisconsin? They're economies are tanking, credit ratings falling, deficits ballooning. What, New Jersey's credit rating has been downgraded nine times since Chris Christie took office with a promise to return to "fiscal sanity through smaller government". And their legislators? They're too busy trying to make sure high school students aren't exposed to fucking AP history class and making that the Bible is the "official state book" to address anything serious. Because god forbid a student should learn how the railroads were really built. Or what our government was up to in Central and South America in the '80s. Or what "Trail of Tears" means. Or who the "robber barons" were. Or that the earth wasn't made in six days.
States, Federal, it doesn't make a difference as long as it's government by, of and for the wealthy elite. And we've got SuperPACs spending tens of millions of dollars on local school board elections for chrissake. State legislators, the guys that used to be part-time politicians and full-time citizens, are almost as likely to become millionaires during their first two terms as your average federal congressman. Sure, you can make state boundaries mean something again, but remember, money doesn't recognize state borders. It doesn't matter if government is centralized. All that matters is that SuperPACs are centralized, because that's where the power lies.
This fight between big government/small government/state/federal is just something to keep us busy while the elite are carrying off everything in sight. Your "elections" are nothing more than the circuses in "bread and circuses".
You are welcome on my lawn.