Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1
Trump's Department of Justice is trying to get a do-over with its campaign to get backdoors onto iPhones and into secure messaging services. The policy rebrand even has its own made-up buzzword. They're calling it "responsible encryption."
After Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein introduced the term in his speech to the U.S. Naval Academy, most everyone who read the transcript was doing spit-takes at their computer monitors. From hackers and infosec professionals to attorneys and tech journalists, "responsible encryption" sounded like a marketing plan to sell unsweetened sugar to diabetics.
Government officials -- not just in the U.S. but around the world -- have always been cranky that they can't access communications that use end-to-end encryption, whether that's Signal or the kind of encryption that protects an iPhone. The authorities are vexed, they say, because encryption without a backdoor impedes law-enforcement investigations, such as when terrorist acts occur.
[...] "Look, it's real simple. Encryption is good for our national security; it's good for our economy. We should be strengthening encryption, not weakening it. And it's technically impossible to have strong encryption with any kind of backdoor," said Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), when asked about Rosenstein's proposal for responsible encryption at The Atlantic's Cyber Frontier event in Washington, D.C.
Source: Great, now there's 'responsible encryption'
(Score: 1) by Chromium_One on Monday October 30 2017, @09:04AM (7 children)
Best idea evar! Surely, only the people who engineered the back doors could ever possibly exploit them!
[insert long stream of profanities here]
When you live in a sick society, everything you do is wrong.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Fluffeh on Monday October 30 2017, @09:24AM (5 children)
They don't care if your phone is hacked by someone else... as long as they can get into it if they care to.
Also, clearly then, if your phone cannot be accessed... you have something to hide. What are you hiding??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @09:35AM (3 children)
None of your business. Now, can you please go back to respect me as a person?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday October 30 2017, @11:37AM (2 children)
Respect is often, apparently, bought, or, sometimes, demanded (usually without right).
Of *course* your government respects you.
Do *you* respect the government appropriately? (They can check, by reading your messages...)
*elections are bought, either by convincing by advertising, boondoggles, corrupted boundary management... it all takes money)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @01:39PM (1 child)
My comment was not targetted at the government specifically.
The point that I tried to make is that I'm more or less forced to open up everything to strangers (government or others) for no apparent reason. They can't know if I'm hiding something for them or it's just none of their business (I have no obligations towards them to show it). Yet, by demanding that I open up things I feel attacked (they don't respect me and the way I things do) and try to take control from me, the actions I do and my freedom to think and act as I see fit as an individual. As soon as I can't keep things to myself I'm not free of my own thoughts any more. That is the point of privacy, not that "I have something to hide".
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday October 31 2017, @05:58AM
Haha, sorry. I really should have used <sarcasm> tags around that bit - I totally agree with you.
I totally value privacy and loathe what is happening with this whole concept of "only people who are hiding something won't share their data willingly". Utter bollocks, but very sadly it's the tune of the last ten years as far as anyone in power is concerned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @04:12PM
"Your suggestion that I have nothing to hide is an admission that you have no reason to look. So leave me alone and get back to work...
(sotto voce: you stupid cop)".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 30 2017, @12:03PM
Well, now, we all know that the NSA and various intel services have never had their stuff stolen. I mean, how could that even happen? They keep their stuff locked down tight, and NO ONE can get to it. Surely we can feel safe when government promises to keep our stuff secure.
http://mashable.com/2017/10/26/kaspersky-nsa-contractor-mistake-russia/ [mashable.com]
http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/14/technology/windows-exploits-shadow-brokers/index.html [cnn.com]
https://thehackernews.com/2017/01/nsa-windows-hacking-tools.html [thehackernews.com]
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/nsa-hacking-tools-stolen-hackers [wired.co.uk]
Well, just look at all of that! If those assholes in WAshington can't keep their own stuff safe, why should I believe they'll keep MY stuff safe?
I just continue screwing for chastity. I have as much chance of getting that right, as they have of getting "responsible" anything right.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz