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In response to the news of what's going on in Australia, Derek Zimmer over at Private Internet Access' blog covers split key cryptography and why government back doors don't/won't/can't work. Attempts to regulate cryptography have been going on for a long while and each try has failed. He starts with recent history, the cold war, and follows through to the latest attempts to stifle encryption. These past failures give a foundation which can be applied to the current situation in hopes of understanding why cryptographers around the world are universally against these kinds of schemes.
The new proposal touted by the NSA, GCHQ, The Australian government and others is a simple evolution of Key Escrow. The proposal is key escrow with split-key cryptography, which is just key escrow with extra steps. There is still a "Golden Key" that can decrypt all messages from a particular service, but this time, two or more entities have pieces of that key. The concept, popularized by a Microsoft researcher, is said to solve the problem of abuse, because all parties have to agree to decrypt the messages.
Earlier on SN:
Australia Set to Pass Controversial Encryption Law
Apple Speaks Out Against Australian Anti-Encryption Law; Police Advised Not to Trigger Face ID
When's A Backdoor Not A Backdoor? When The Oz Government Says It Isn't
Australian Government Pursues "Golden Key" for Encryption
and more
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @07:55AM (4 children)
Unless those parties all share the key with someone else, or their keys are stolen, then abuse is guaranteed. On the level of heists I think these keys would pay very well.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Sunday December 09 2018, @03:22PM (2 children)
Let's see...
Party one: corporation, forbidden to resist the government with force
Party two: government, with basically unlimited supply of force: toadies, guns, owns the courts
...sure, this will solve the problem of abuse. We can all go home now.
/s
--
Ignorance is weakness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @06:01PM (1 child)
Who needs a super computer or secret courts? That shit is expensive. Last i heard you can get a plumber to brring his wremches direct to you for 90-150.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 09 2018, @09:35PM
That's government thinking.
Corporate types send an intern to Ace or Home Depot to buy a drywall hammer (look it up) for a coupla sawbucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @09:06AM
Losing that master key is only one way in which this weakens encryption.
The fact that a second key exists to decrypt the message into the same original content creates a huge attack surface to find that second key. I don't know enough cryptography to tell how easy it is.
But you have one or even multiple of key's, and any number of messages with any content you like. That gives you a very big load of information to go after a very high value target like a master key.