Governments of the World Agree: Encryption Must Die!

Lauren Weinstein writes: Finally! There's something that apparently virtually all governments around the world can actually agree upon. Unfortunately, it's on par conceptually with handing out hydrogen bombs as lottery prizes. If the drumbeat isn't actually coordinated, it might as well be. Around the world, in testimony before national legislatures and in countless interviews with media, government officials and their surrogates are proclaiming the immediate need to "do something" about encryption that law enforcement and other government agencies can't read on demand. Apropos: This IT World story (and the New York Times piece it draws from — also published today) about a newly disclosed NSA program through which the agency is "reportedly intercepting Internet communications from U.S. residents without getting court-ordered warrants."

Comments

Encryption users agree:

[fustakrakich]

Governments of the world must die!

Re:Encryption users agree:

[cayenne8]

Letting the corporations run the world as a collection of fiefdoms isn't better than what we have now.

I thought that was EXACTLY what we currently had right now.....?

Re: Encryption users agree:

[Anonymous Coward]

Corporate fascism is what you have, there is nothing even remotely close to socialism in the US, it is merely the ultra-nationalist right that paints the moderate right as leftists which is skewing your perceptions.

Re:Encryption is a WEAPON

[Anonymous Coward]

Encryption is a SHIELD.

It protects people from spies, fraudsters, and other 3 letter criminals.

Nations fear it, but they fear each other more...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, blocking encryption might make it easy to catch low hanging fruit, but it will win a battle or two and lose the war. ISIS and Al Qaeda do quite well in communications with just old fashioned courier services.

Lets say that the US signs a treaty with other nations (treaties override the US constitution as per precedent) banning all forms of crypto completely except say, Clipper 2.0 and SkipJack 2.0. The bad guys who wind up not caring that their private keys get sucked out and used against them will get nailed at first.

However, the real bad guys will just start going back to tried and true methods which worked perfectly to coordinate criminal activity for centuries before computers and portable devices came along. Yes, location monitoring might help with HUMINT, but as Iraq and ISIS has shown, extremely low tech means have gotten a group of insurgents armed with little more than pickup trucks, AKs and insane levels of brutality to actually form a caliphate which Europe officially recognizes as a sovereign nation and trading partner.

Then, there is the distrust factor. If only key escrow remains, who owns the master keys? If China does, US interests would be destroyed, like the solar panel industry. Eventually nations will keep encryption just so they are not vulnerable to other nations.

Finally, there is the DRM factor. If cryptography is banned, how can console makers keep selling $300 worth of crap for an eight-hour playing game and make money? How do they protect 5k video streams from pirates? Outlaw encryption in the US, China will have it. DRM requires strong crypto, and the big companies know it.

Re:That will only waste bandwidth

[Jane Q. Public]

People will never stop using cryptography, laws or not.

We went through this crap in the 80s, then the 90s, then again around 2000. It's just plain ridiculous, causes problems, and never works. Trying to "regulate" cryptography is like trying to regulate what a pencil is capable of writing.

Re:Nations fear it, but they fear each other more.

[Anonymous Coward]

"bad guys" will continue to use home made encryption and not give a fuck what governments say.

Re:That will only waste bandwidth

[Krishnoid]

I don't know why this is necessary. If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.

On a completely unrelated note, please enjoy this funny cat video, as well as this image macro, poorly composited with entirely random jpeg compression artifacts around the lettering.

Re:Nations fear it, but they fear each other more.

[Alwin Henseler]

ISIS and Al Qaeda do quite well in communications with just old fashioned courier services.

I thought they used smoke signals:

No smoke: wazzuuup! Takin' the day off.
1 Big puff of smoke: Yep - new detonator design works.
2 Big puffs of smoke: Ali who got sick the other day, is feeling okay again.
3 Big puffs of smoke: That new recruit seems very proficient in mixing the chemicals.
4 Big puffs of smoke: Wtf... who else is making bombs?!?
Big puffs of smoke everywhere: Sh** we're being bombed!

Re:That will only waste bandwidth

[fustakrakich]

Demonizing is the real ploy. They know it can't really be regulated, but if they get the public to vilify encryption users as criminals, mission accomplished! So far these methods are enjoying a small measure of success.

Re:Nations fear it, but they fear each other more.

[smpoole7]

> treaties override the US constitution as per precedent ...

No. Only in certain very limited cases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

From that article: "No agreement with a foreign nation can confer power on the Congress, or on any other branch of Government, which is free from the restraints of the Constitution."

And,

"The concept that the Bill of Rights and other constitutional protections against arbitrary government are inoperative when they become inconvenient or when expediency dictates otherwise is a very dangerous doctrine and if allowed to flourish would destroy the benefit of a written Constitution and undermine the basis of our government."