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from the We-[want-to]-see-what-you-did-there dept.
FBI: End-to-End Encryption Is an Infectious Problem
Just in case there were any lingering doubts about U.S. law enforcement's stance on end-to-end encryption, which prevents information from being read by anyone but its intended recipient, FBI executive assistant director Amy Hess told the Wall Street Journal this week that its use "is a problem that infects law enforcement and the intelligence community more and more so every day."
The quote was published in a piece about efforts from the UK, Australia and India to undermine end-to-end encryption. All three countries have passed or proposed legislation that compels tech companies to supply certain information to government agencies. The laws vary in their specifics, including restrictions on to what information law enforcement can request access, but the gist is that they don't want any data to be completely inaccessible.
Related: FBI Chief Calls for National Talk Over Encryption vs. Safety
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Five Eyes Governments Get Even Tougher on Encryption
Apple Speaks Out Against Australian Anti-Encryption Law; Police Advised Not to Trigger Face ID
Australia Set to Pass Controversial Encryption Law
Split Key Cryptography is Back... Again – Why Government Back Doors Don't Work
(Score: 5, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Thursday February 28 2019, @12:03AM (2 children)
Once again, please repeat after me: the same encryption technology that allows criminals and terrorists to converse securely, also permits ordinary law-abiding people to securely engage in electronic commerce and banking. You want to kill electronic commerce dead? That's the way to do it, by legally mandating back doors in all encryption technology. Once this is done, then in a matter of hours, the intelligence agencies of the world, including those of hostile foreign countries, will know the master key. In a matter of days criminals will know it too, and then no one doing electronic commerce will be able to survive the avalanche of fraud that will result. No way that an immensely juicy and valuable secret like the master key to all American encryption won't eventually get out. Congratulations, you just killed Amazon, PayPal, and every other business like them, basically salted the ground for electronic commerce so no other businesses like them can ever arise again (at least until you repeal your stupid law), and sent ordinary, law-abiding people back to doing banking on paper and shopping with nothing but cash in brick and mortar stores. And meanwhile criminals will still be using their no-backdoors encryption to communicate securely. They're already breaking many laws by doing what they do, what's one more?
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 28 2019, @01:33AM (1 child)
You say that like it is a bad thing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stormwyrm on Thursday February 28 2019, @01:52AM
It's the second part, 'every other business like them' that is a truly bad thing. The current lords of e-commerce may be right bastards but I don't want to see them to die in a way that ensures they will never have any successors. The end of Amazon and PayPal, sure, the end of e-commerce as a whole, no.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.