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posted by martyb on Saturday August 01 2020, @10:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the elections-are-coming-up-soon-vs-PGP dept.

Bill Aimed at Ending 'Warrant-Proof' Encryption Introduced in House:

Referred to as the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, the bill aims to put a stop to criminals using “warrant-proof encryption and other technological advances” to hide their activity from authorities, Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-MO), who introduced the bill, said.

“It is time tech companies stand with criminal investigators and the public to make clear they are committed to rooting out perpetrators who use their services to commit horrific crimes. As the digital world advances, so must our legislative solutions to investigate crimes that hit hardest the most vulnerable in our society,” Rep. Wagner commented.

Law enforcement agencies have long argued that strong encryption hinders their ability to conduct successful investigations in certain cases, often asking for backdoors that would provide them fast access to data of interest, but tech companies have opposed these requests, arguing that backdoors would introduce serious security and privacy risks.

The legislation would require tech companies to provide authorities with access to encrypted user data, while also stating that the Attorney General would report on which companies can comply. Furthermore, the government would offer compensation to companies that comply with the legislation.

Previously:
(2020-07-07) US Senate Panel OK's EARN IT Act
(2020-06-27) Senators Introduce "Balanced" Bill That Aims to End Warrant-Proof Encryption
(2020-06-11) Plundering of Crypto Keys From Ultrasecure SGX Sends Intel Scrambling Again
(2020-06-06) Zoom Says Free Users Won't Get End-to-End Encryption so FBI and Police Can Access Calls
(2020-05-19) AG Barr Seeks 'Legislative Solution' to Make Companies Unlock Phones
(2020-05-19) FBI Successfully Broke Into a Gunman's iPhone, but Still Very Angry at Apple


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday August 02 2020, @01:26PM (5 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 02 2020, @01:26PM (#1030237) Journal

    Nonetheless any encryption can be bruteforced.

    Like one time pads? And we probably already know encryption methods that can't be brute-forced even with the known universe converted into a computer, classic, quantum, or otherwise.

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  • (Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Sunday August 02 2020, @03:06PM (3 children)

    by loonycyborg (6905) on Sunday August 02 2020, @03:06PM (#1030284)

    When did you last time use actual one time pad? All hard to break encryption schemes are also pain in the ass to use. And people who really want to use them wouldn't care about what companies are mandated by law to offer. They will use own stuff. You cannot outlaw mathematical algorithms.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 03 2020, @01:23PM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 03 2020, @01:23PM (#1030711) Journal

      When did you last time use actual one time pad?

      Never, but that's irrelevant. You made a claim. I provided a counterexample.

      All hard to break encryption schemes are also pain in the ass to use.

      Pain in the ass for who? Software would do that hard to break, pain in the ass encryption, not me. At worst, maybe one has to memorize a long password or carry around a dongle.

      • (Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Monday August 03 2020, @03:47PM (1 child)

        by loonycyborg (6905) on Monday August 03 2020, @03:47PM (#1030762)

        "Memorize long password" and "carry around a dongle" is something what most people won't actually do. Generic consumer solutions by definition would strive to make things convenient instead at expense of introducing enough weaknesses that it won't be a problem for government to penetrate systems. In case of tech-savvy criminals they will eventually acquire a solution without backdoors, doesn't matter what laws are in effect.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 03 2020, @10:40PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 03 2020, @10:40PM (#1030967) Journal

          Generic consumer solutions by definition would strive to make things convenient instead at expense of introducing enough weaknesses that it won't be a problem for government to penetrate systems.

          Like "pin and chip"? It's already happening.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 02 2020, @03:13PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday August 02 2020, @03:13PM (#1030286) Journal

    Oh, decrypting one-time pads is easy:

    Step 1: Decide what cleartext you want it to decrypt to.
    Step 2: Xor that cleartext with the encrypted message to get the corresponding key.
    Step 3: Demonstrate that the key indeed decrypts to that cleartext.

    SCNR

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.