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El Reg :
Analysis In the wake of the FBI's failed fight against Apple, Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced a draft bill that would effectively ban strong crypto.
The bill would require tech and communications companies to allow law enforcement with a court order to decrypt their customers' data. Last week a draft copy of the bill, dubbed the Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016, was leaked, but the new version is even worse than the discussion draft.
In the draft version, court orders could only be issued for a crime resulting in death or serious bodily harm, terrorism and espionage, crimes against minors, serious violent felonies or Federal drug crimes. In the final version, those caveats are gone, so any court order will allow the police to access the data they want.
The bill would apply to "device manufacturers, software manufacturers, electronic communication services, remote communication services, providers of wire or electronic communication services, providers of remote communication services, or any person who provides a product or method to facilitate a communication or to process or store data." That's a pretty wide net.
"No entity or individual is above the law," said Feinstein. "The bill we have drafted would simply provide that, if a court of law issues an order to render technical assistance or provide decrypted data, the company or individual would be required to do so.
"Today, terrorists and criminals are increasingly using encryption to foil law enforcement efforts, even in the face of a court order. We need strong encryption to protect personal data, but we also need to know when terrorists are plotting to kill Americans."
Idiots, I tell you, they're a pair of idiots.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Friday April 15 2016, @12:39AM
In this letter I'm giving her my information so that she knows where to send the police to take me to prison when the bill is signed.
There is no way that every engineer is going to roll over on this. If they make it impossible for businesses to do this, then it will become FOSS community supported efforts where nobody gets paid, and it operates on donations.
At no point is forced government backdoors going to be acceptable, and that's assuming it was even technologically possible to do in the first place.
This outlaws encryption. Period.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @12:44AM
I'm not sure who the alternatives are, but I REALLY wish Cali would get their shit together and drop that bitch like its hot.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @01:05AM
I wish there were an "Agree" moderation option.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Friday April 15 2016, @12:53AM
They are such fucking morons.
So I'm not limited to choosing zero knowledge encryption, or end-to-end encryption as a specific design restriction, but then I am restricted to NOT use zero knowledge encryption, or end-to-end encryption.
Which is it?
Uhhh, fuck you. Even if you were going to pay me for all the associated costs of storage, you just asked me to record something every 15 fucking seconds, from every fucking line, every fucking extension..... you wouldn't record this information in production. It's useless beyond real-time diagnostics. This is just more meta data for their Eyes Of Horus.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Geotti on Friday April 15 2016, @04:10AM
Uhm...
A provider [...] shall
ensure that any such products, services, applications, or
software [...] be capable of com-
plying with subsection (a) [i.e. provide, or create the means to access data in an intelligible format]
So, basically this could be used to make you put in a backdoor in your zero-knowledge "infrastructure" (i.e. inside the app itself).
They're just updating the All Writs act and naming it COCOA, so Apple knows, who this is about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @01:28AM
A threat doesn't sound like a great idea. They will probably nab you even if the bill is not signed. Of course, we can't say for sure unless this was an open letter.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday April 15 2016, @02:09AM
I didn't threaten her in any way. What I did was state in simple terms that her encryption proposal did in fact have serious and daunting design restrictions, and moreover, that encryption was a human right. To demand I not implement zero knowledge or end-to-end encryption solutions when she also demands I effect privacy is ludicrous. As a small business I was unfairly burdened with additional unremunerated costs not covered in her proposed bill, and my customers were unfairly denied technology to increase our levels of security and remain competitive in the global technology sectors.
In any case, I told her I was going to make a stand like the Apple employees that would quit before compromising the iPhone for "her". Whatever happened, I would never stop helping to design and implement zero knowledge and end-to-end solutions, even for free to anyone who asked. Re-education camps were mentioned, and not as hyperbole. She would need to have me reprogrammed before I assist in creating key escrow solutions that are not even technically viable, and she better remember to reprogram me to *not* vote for somebody else the next election.
Even mentioned Gandhi and MLK at the end :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @03:04AM
Welcome to the terrorist watch list.
You seem to be under the delusion that the powers that be don't see refusing to comply with their demands as "ideological extremism". Consider yourself radicalized, they do.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Friday April 15 2016, @07:08AM
You know what... I don't care. If I'm on a terrorist watch list for having a reasonable discussion with my Senator as one of her constituents... then a terrorist I be.
I'm not going to be afraid to talk to my Senators, especially about controversial and uncomfortable subjects that need to be discussed like this.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @05:08AM
You can always tell a politician, but you can't tell 'em much.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Common Joe on Friday April 15 2016, @05:21AM
You should thank her instead for the entertainment value. Tell her you'd never break the law, but you'll be watching with popcorn as hackers infiltrate her bank accounts, email accounts, etc and steal her identity. Be sure to mention the Streisand Effect.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday April 15 2016, @11:53AM
Jesus, if only they would. It has been over a decade now that they've been waging war on us. Time for the same to redound on them a million-fold.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday April 15 2016, @04:23PM
I would love to see her and her husband's backdoor dealings brought to light.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 16 2016, @03:10AM
“Only a madman would give a loaded revolver to an idiot”.
-- Fredric Brown, "The Weapon"