Government Seeks Back Door Into All Our Communications

[Panaconda]

September 27th, 2010

Government Seeks Back Door Into All Our Communications
Commentary by Seth Schoen

The New York Times reported this morning on a Federal government plan to put government-mandated back doors in all communications systems, including all encryption software. The Times said the Obama administration is drafting a law that would impose a new "mandate" that all communications services be "able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages" — including ordering "evelopers of software that enables peer-to-peer communication redesign their service to allow interception".

Throughout the 1990s, EFF and others fought the "crypto wars" to ensure that the public would have the right to strong encryption tools that protect our privacy and security — with no back doors and no intentional weaknesses. We fought in court and in Congress to protect privacy rights and challenge restrictions on encryption, and to make sure the public could use encryption to protect itself. In a 1999 decision in the EFF-led Bernstein case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals observed that

whether we are surveilled by our government, by criminals, or by our neighbors, it is fair to say that never has our ability to shield our affairs from prying eyes been at such a low ebb. The availability and use of secure encryption may offer an opportunity to reclaim some portion of the privacy we have lost. Government efforts to control encryption thus may well implicate not only the First Amendment rights of cryptographers intent on pushing the boundaries of their science, but also the constitutional rights of each of us as potential recipients of encryption's bounty.

For a decade, the government backed off of attempts to force encryption developers to weaken their products and include back doors, and the crypto wars seemed to have been won. (Indeed, journalist Steven Levy declared victory for the civil libertarian side in 2001.) In the past ten years, even as the U.S. government has sought (or simply taken) vastly expanded surveillance powers, it never attempted to ban the development and use of secure encryption.

...

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/government-seeks

[Warren Stupidity]

1. National Security State and Permanent War

The latter is used to justify the former. The war of course has no end, and the National Security State is not a democracy, representative or otherwise, and is certainly not restricted to constitutional boundaries.

[Le Taz Hot]

2. "Si se puede."

:puke:

[nebenaube]

3. Private communications are a necessary evil.

Without them, there will be no more innovation. Why should anyone try to develop something unique and new if there's a risk that some corrupt individual can/has hacked the backdoor or some other government flunky has sold your new idea to your competitor.

[littlewolf]

4. didn't Bush try this crap also ... WTF

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

6. he did,

Sometimes change is the same thing.

[TBF]

11. This goes beyond what Bush tried -

Regulations to target Skype, Facebook, Blackberry
By Patrick Martin
28 September 2010

The Obama White House is backing new regulations that would compel popular Internet messaging services like Facebook, Skype and Blackberry to open up their systems to FBI surveillance, the New York Times reported Monday, citing federal law enforcement and national security officials.

The threat to democratic rights goes far beyond anything envisioned by the Bush administration. The goal is to make all forms of electronic communication that use the Internet subject to wiretapping and interception by federal police agencies.

In the past few years there has been a large-scale shift from conventional telephone communication to Internet-based messaging, which is both cheaper and more secure.

“Investigators have been concerned for years that changing communications technology could damage their ability to conduct surveillance,” the Times reported. “In recent months, officials from the FBI, the Justice Department, the National Security Agency, the White House and other agencies have been meeting to develop a proposed solution.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/wire-s28.shtml (much more at the link)

[Hubert Flottz]

5. Do you ever get the feeling that the people who run this country

are fucking nuts?

[leveymg]

7. "Secure encryption" - you mean like the NSA can't break it? rofl

:rofl: Why do you think the gov't backed off all these past years - if they inserted "keys" into commercial software the software company was aware of, the Russians, Chinese, Saudis, and half the rest of the world would learn immediately what the way in is, and would be grabbing everything of value that trips a switch or bounces off a satellite.

If you own an American company that has developed a really secure encryption technique, better believe the USG will be more than happy to buy it and lock it safely away in the black cube. Then, for good measure, you'll be handed a contract and a security clearance with a non-disclosure clause. If you're at all sane, you won't talk to Mr. Levy about it.

[madrchsod]

8. welcome to the final years of the grand experiment....

that was the united states of america. not in a thousand years would i have thought a democratic president would preside in it`s death.

[Vickers]

9. If you have nothing to hide, why would it matter?

(and just in case... :sarcasm: )

[blindpig]

10. k&r