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from the oh-my-god-give-it-a-rest-already!!! dept.
Prime Minister Theresa May has not abandoned her usual crusades:
On a break from Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May takes her crusade against technology giants to Davos.
"No-one wants to be known as 'the terrorists' platform' or the first choice app for pedophiles," May is expected to say according to excerpts released by her office ahead of her speech Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Technology companies still need to go further in stepping up their responsibilities for dealing with harmful and illegal online activity."
Don't forget the slave traders.
Luckily, May has a solution... Big AI:
After two years of repeatedly bashing social media companies, May will say that successfully harnessing the capabilities of AI -- and responding to public concerns about AI's impact on future generations -- is "one of the greatest tests of leadership for our time."
May will unveil a new government-funded Center for Data Ethics and Innovation that will provide companies and policymakers guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence.
Also at BBC, TechCrunch, and The Inquirer.
Related: UK Prime Minister Repeats Calls to Limit Encryption, End Internet "Safe Spaces"
WhatsApp Refused to add a Backdoor for the UK Government
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 26 2018, @11:31AM (4 children)
An actual, current analogy isn't hard to come up with. Locks on doors and other things is pretty accurate. When most people run down to the hardware store, and buy a shiny new padlock for twenty bucks, they THINK that they have a secure device. No one can open that lock, unless they are given the key, right? WRONG! In point of fact, there are thousands of locks in circulation around the nation that can be opened by the same key. But, since those thousands are shipped to different stores in different cities, in different states, it's unlikely that any two people will ever attempt to open each other's locks.
Then, there are master keys. Given a master key, you may be able to open twenty, or a hundred, or a thousand different locks of similar constructions. They need not even be the same brand of lock - I have succeeded in opening a Master Lock with a Brink's key.
Beyond master keys, you have picks, which are capable of opening almost every keyed lock in existence. (There are a couple European brands which are extremely hard to manipulate - but those cost a helluva lot more than twenty bucks!)
If a pick doesn't work for you, you can always call in a master locksmith. He has knowledge and tools with which to get into almost any lock in the world.
Now - let's consider what lawmakers want. They are asking that all keyed locks open with a tool which only law enforcement may possess. Basically, law enforcement will have a master key which will open any keyed lock, anywhere - whether it be a padlock, a door lock, a chest, cabinet, or box lock. Every lock produced anywhere in the world must open with this master key, which only law enforment will have.
And, naturally, as soon as the bill is introduced, six companies in the US and 35 more companies worldwide start producing these magical master keys. Within months after the bill becomes law, a hundred more companies start producing the locks. Soon, everyone in the world has a key to open any lock in the world.
This all sounds very secure to me!! NOT!!!!
Way back when locks and keys were first invented, Royalty should have just outlawed their use.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday January 26 2018, @03:10PM (2 children)
When most people run down to the hardware store, and buy a shiny new padlock for twenty bucks, they THINK that they have a secure device. No one can open that lock, unless they are given the key, right? WRONG! In point of fact, there are thousands of locks in circulation around the nation that can be opened by the same key. ... it's unlikely that any two people will ever attempt to open each other's locks.
It's exactly the same with car keys. There's only so many combinations you can have with a mechanical key, and I've heard of plenty of people who actually unlocked the wrong car's door, thinking it was their car, and then wondering why there was someone else's stuff inside. This doesn't happen so much now since most cars have keyless entry, but in the old days it wasn't *that* uncommon. Luckily, in modern cars, you can't drive away in the wrong car, you can only open the door.
Now - let's consider what lawmakers want. They are asking that all keyed locks open with a tool which only law enforcement may possess.
We actually have this already: luggage on commercial airlines is supposed to have a "TSA certified" lock, which "only" TSA has the master key for, or else they can bust your lock open to inspect the luggage. Of course, this key is pretty trivial to duplicate and there's photos and diagrams on the internet for it, so no one's luggage is safe any more. This is probably the very best analogy IMO, because it shows how silly this is. If a large government allows lots of low-level employees access to the keys, inevitably that's going to get out there, and now everyone's lock is unsafe. We've already seen this with the TSA locks.
Way back when locks and keys were first invented, Royalty should have just outlawed their use.
They had locks back in Roman times, predating the royalty of the Middle Ages. (While the Roman Empire had a hereditary system of choosing emperors for a while, until the Praetorian Guard just started selling the position, I wouldn't really associate the word "royalty" with the Romans, it really seems to connote the feudal system that came later.)
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday January 26 2018, @03:26PM
TSA Keys: https://github.com/Xyl2k/TSA-Travel-Sentry-master-keys [github.com]
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(Score: 1) by pTamok on Friday January 26 2018, @03:49PM
I wouldn't really associate the word "royalty" with the Romans
Well, actually...
The Roman Empire [wikipedia.org] was preceded by the Roman Republic [wikipedia.org], which itself was preceded by the Roman Kingdom [wikipedia.org]. The last King of Rome was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @04:00AM
UK gets a new tank for the army. Just in case they are captured by the enemy, UK demanded they come with a secret weak point, so they can disable them easily.
Problem is everyone can get such tanks even before the war, copy them over and over, and test and disassemble them until they figure where the weakness is. Because they are crypto programs, not physical tanks. The "limited money" or "hard to im/export by law" defenses don't fly, even less with civilian tools like software also used to connect with your bank webserver.
Do UK leaders still want that tank model? If they say yes, we now know they are total morons, and deserve an army uprising to kick them out, as they will push the army into unwinnable wars, with faulty equipment, because they think politics can win over physics, maths, chemistry and all those "silly" sciences.