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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

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 [privateinternetaccess.com]. 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 [soylentnews.org]
Apple Speaks Out Against Australian Anti-Encryption Law; Police Advised Not to Trigger Face ID [soylentnews.org]
When's A Backdoor Not A Backdoor? When The Oz Government Says It Isn't [soylentnews.org]
Australian Government Pursues "Golden Key" for Encryption [soylentnews.org]
and more

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