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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.
You'd think that all that Ivy League brainpower would be able to figure out that the FBI's empty posturing is exactly that. Of course, it's also very possible that its kabuki all the way down.
Rule 35 of the internet: "If it can be hacked, it will be". - Charles Stross
He never envisioned that, instead of a totalitarian government imposing viewscreens on everyone and then pounding the populace into submission, one could just offer "reality programming" on the viewscreens. The populace pounds itself into submission, and all a government has to do is plug into the APIs that everyone has voluntarily installed in every room of every house. And if there wasn't a totalitarian government already in existence, well, preinstalled omnipresence and omniscience certainly makes a fertile field in which one can sprout.
I guess I will continue to tolerate opening the front door with my own fingers and adjusting the thermostat once I arrive at home as the necessary struggles of clinging to the outdated ways.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
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.
He doesn't think?
He neither thinks for everyone nor speaks for everyone. The mass of people tend to believe the US government is spying to protect them so they don't care.
They forget that the fastest way to lose civil liberties is by failing to stand up for the rights of the worst people in society--thieves, murderers, investment bankers, terrorists.
You don't just protect the rights of minorities because of egalitarian or meritocratic principles. You do it because so long as you can slice society up into little segments and take the rights away from one group, everyone's rights are at risk.
At some point a person will be invited onto vast networked applications, clouds or other sharing or web 2.0 platform.
Given the need to profit from users interactions the need to "reach out" will be the security forces way in.
Encryption will not offer privacy on services, hardware and devices designed to track users habits.
Privacy cannot be created if every movement is been logged.
A journalist found to be sitting next to a whistleblower for 20 mins. Both having their cell phones on is not safe if they take notes on paper and have the phone powered (battery sealed in by design).
Encryption that is weak by design or an OS that is created with gov approved trap doors and back doors is not encryption, just an expensive keylogger.
Watch for the honey trap and any new best friends if using encryption and understanding its limitations on any network.
If your a company or brand, fly in your staff, talk face to face in a vault, use all paper files. Any data on a connected server is in the public or a billing system thats used globally. Keep new projects and all readable data away from networks. Buying junk turn key encryption or cloud products from nations that allow designers to share your data with their gov, mil, other nations is not the best idea.
Understand the positive and negative pressure a mil or gov will place on a supplier of encryption, cloud or other computer products for domestic or export use.
Leadership in some brands will even weaken their products or collect all or allow a gov/mil in.
Re the "bulk surveillance" and "targeted surveillance"
Encryption without privacy is just a location to send gov or mil bespoke malware down to.
Privacy with junk encryption is a plaintext message.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
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.
Terms of Service (TOS) and people agreeing to give all their info up is going to do us in, as someone mentioned above about Orwell envisioned government oppression doing it, but it is actually people *giving up freedom* that is a much more devious thing. Gradual and it feels good to have all this convenience and security...... a warm blanket that someday may smother you......
Self Defense - A Human Right www.a-human-right.com