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US Anti-Encryption Law Is So 'Braindead' It Will Outlaw File Compression (theregister.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: The bill released Thursday by Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein to force U.S. companies to build backdoors into their encryption systems has been further dissected by experts. In less than 24 hours after the Court Orders Act of 2016 draft was released, 43,000 signatures have been added to a petition calling for the bill to be withdrawn. Bruce Schneier, the writer of the books on modern cryptography, said the bill would make most of what the NSA does illegal, unless no such agency is willing to backdoor its own encrypted communications. "This is the most braindead piece of legislation I've ever seen," Schneier told The Register. "The person who wrote this either has no idea how technology works or just doesn't care." Schneier says cryptographic code will be affected by this legislation, as well as "lossy compression algorithms" that are used to reduce the size of images for sending through email, which won't work in reverse and add back the data removed. Files that can't be decrypted on demand to their original state, and files that can't be decompressed back to their exact originals, all look the same to this draft now. He said even deleted data could be covered in this legislation.
there just isn't anything else to say. this is legislation in the ISIS category meant to hammer society back to 600 AD.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
If you live in California, you know full well how she continues to get elected: California voters are idiots who do what they're told by the talking box in their living room.
It's like the ban on exporting encryption software or source files which had the simple workaround of a bound book of source code being sent overseas to legitimately write compatible software.
If passed, workarounds would be found.
Worst-Case: Tech Industry leaves America for saner shores (it's not like these companies are all that patriotic).
All to prevent fundamentalists from destroying America, well, wait what?
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
I've known Richard Burr since 1994. He was an appliance salesman who wanted to be in Congress. I was a campaign organizer for his opponent in that race. He has no understanding of tech issues which makes it all the more ridiculous that he is Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Burr is doing this because he is up for re-election this November. His opponent in the race is Deborah Ross, an intelligent and hard working former member of the NC House of Representatives and former State Director of the North Carolina ACLU. If you really want to fix the Burr problem, consider making a donation to the Deborah Ross for Senate Campaign. https://secure.actblue.com/con...
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Yes, she runs as a Democrat but must be a DINO...in-name-only.
While she does support some liberal stances on gay marriage and on occasion has voted for small scaling back of some surveillance programs her overall record is far from liberal.
She is fiercely pro-corporate supporting H1B programs and nearly every pro-Hollywood copyright plan she sees.
Her anti-free-speech sentiments are seen both as the main Democratic sponsor of the failed Flag Desecration constitutional amendment and in bills supporting unilateral US censorship of the Internet.
She was the original Democratic supporter of the PATRIOT act, supports numerous hard-stance "tough on crime" acts and called for the immediate arrest and extradition of Edward Snowden.
She is pro death-penalty.
She is against any substantial limits on spying having joined Republicans in voting to give the executive branch authority for international surveillance of Americans without the need for FISA court oversight and for continuing civil immunity for providers who assist the government is such activities.
Meanwhile, her husband Richard Blum's firm CBRE is poised to earn $1 Billion on the sale of closed post offices.
Her sponsorship of this idiotic legislation should not surprise anyone.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis