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Harvard: No, Crypto Isn't Making the FBI Go Dark
Trailrunner7 writes: The FBI and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have warned for years that the increased use of encryption by consumers is making surveillance and lawful interception much more difficult, impeding investigations. But a new study by a group of experts at Harvard's Berkman Center says those claims are largely overblown and that the IoT revolution will give agencies plenty of new chances for clear-channel surveillance.
"We argue that communications in the future will neither be eclipsed into darkness nor illuminated without shadow. Market forces and commercial interests will likely limit the circumstances in which companies will offer encryption that obscures user data from the companies themselves, and the trajectory of technological development points to a future abundant in unencrypted data, some of which can fill gaps left by the very communication channels law enforcement fears will 'go dark' and beyond reach," the Berkman Center report says.
"We argue that communications in the future will neither be eclipsed into darkness nor illuminated without shadow. Market forces and commercial interests will likely limit the circumstances in which companies will offer encryption that obscures user data from the companies themselves, and the trajectory of technological development points to a future abundant in unencrypted data, some of which can fill gaps left by the very communication channels law enforcement fears will 'go dark' and beyond reach," the Berkman Center report says.
I use OpenBSD both as a desktop and server operating system precisely because they will never bend to the likes of government. Cloud and software companies will gladly bend to the will of government. Say what you want about Theo de Raadt but the guy sticks to his principles like glue. After accusations of backdoors surfaced, the OpenBSD project did a comprehensive audit which revealed no secret backdoor and ended up correcting some bugs and other issues. I trust OpenBSD for all of my computing needs.
Shouldn't that be the "terrorists" or "hackers" or whatever going dark? "Going dark" is slang for going silent, off-grid, etc. Nothing short of the destruction of the USA as a country, or a total de-funding the FBI, would ever make the FBI itself "go dark". That would have to be some pretty AMAZING crypto to make the FBI shut down all their offices, all their employees disappear, etc.