Slashdot Mirror
How 1990s Encryption Backdoors Put Today's Internet In Jeopardy
An anonymous reader writes: While debate swirls in Washington D.C. about new encryption laws, the consequences of the last crypto war is still being felt. Logjam vulnerabilities making headlines today is "a direct result of weakening cryptography legislation in the 1990s," researcher J. Alex Halderman said. "Thanks to Moore's law and improvements in cryptanalysis, the ability to break that crypto is something really anyone can do with open-source software. The backdoor might have seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe the arguments 20 years ago convinced people this was going to be safe. History has shown otherwise. This is the second time in two months we've seen 90s era crypto blow up and put the safety of everyone on the internet in jeopardy."
Anyone using a back door is not a good guy in my book. Even if law enforcement thought this was a good idea - there are already established procedures and methods of putting someone in jail. Cops aren't allowed to break into your house when you're not home and search your stuff. Why should they be allowed to use a back door? Unless of course they have something to hide...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
"...to three-letter agencies. If we allow them in, we also allow the 'baddies' in -- and the NSA has proven to be at least as bad as the terrorists and criminals they're ostensibly monitoring."
Can you draw me a ven diagram for three letter agencies, baddies, criminals and terrorists, I'm getting confused.
Must be be a millennium thing, I don't remember it being so difficult 15 years ago...