SoylentNews

Washington State Bill Would Make Hard-to-Repair Electronics Illegal

posted by janrinok on Monday January 29 2018, @02:35AM   
from the and-so-it-begins dept.

Fnord666 writes:

A number of states are considering right to repair bills, legislation which if passed would make it easier for individuals and repair shops to replace or repair electronics parts. Repair.org reports that 17 states have already introduced bills this year and while most aim to make repair parts and manuals accessible, Washington's proposed legislation would straight up ban electronics that prevent easy repair. "Original manufacturers of digital electronic products sold on or after January 1, 2019, in Washington state are prohibited from designing or manufacturing digital electronic products in such a way as to prevent reasonable diagnostic or repair functions by an independent repair provider," says the bill. "Preventing reasonable diagnostic or repair functions includes permanently affixing a battery in a manner that makes it difficult or impossible to remove."

[...] Naturally, tech groups have jumped to make their opposition clear. In a letter to Morris, groups such as the Consumer Technology Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Computer Technology Industry Association said the bill was "unwarranted" and added, "With access to technical information, criminals can more easily circumvent security protections, harming not only the product owner but also everyone who shares their network."

Source: Engadget

---

Original Submission

• Security by obscurity (Score: 5, Insightful) by stormwyrm on Monday January 29 2018, @06:28AM

  by stormwyrm (717) on Monday January 29 2018, @06:28AM (#629721) Journal

  With access to technical information, criminals can more easily circumvent security protections, harming not only the product owner but also everyone who shares their network.

  So you're admitting that your gear is already insecure, or more charitably has not really been designed with security in mind, and only requires an opponent with the ability to reverse engineer your stuff to break it? Real security is such that the system will remain secure even if all technical information about the security system is disclosed. As usual, Schneier has an essay [schneier.com] discussing the issue in depth:

  The argument that secrecy is good for security is naive, and always worth rebutting. Secrecy is beneficial to security only in limited circumstances, and certainly not with respect to vulnerability or reliability information. Secrets are fragile; once they're lost, they're lost forever. Security that relies on secrecy is also fragile; once secrecy is lost there's no way to recover security. Trying to base security on secrecy is simply bad design.

  --
  Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+3
  Insightful=3, Total=3
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5