Senator McCain Promises To Introduce Legislation To Backdoor Encryption, Make Everyone Less Safe
from the bad-ideas dept
Two months ago, the Obama administration came to the conclusion that mandating backdoors to encryption through legislation was a non-starter. They seemed to recognize that it was mostly a bad idea and (more importantly) that Congress would not approve such legislation. Almost immediately, we noted that intelligence officials (almost gleefully) noted that they really just needed to wait for the next terrorist attack to restart the campaign. Here was Robert Litt, the top lawyer in the intelligence community:Although “the legislative environment is very hostile today,” the intelligence community’s top lawyer, Robert S. Litt, said to colleagues in an August e-mail, which was obtained by The Post, “it could turn in the event of a terrorist attack or criminal event where strong encryption can be shown to have hindered law enforcement.”Given all that, it was disappointing that the Obama administration then took the cowardly way out, and refused to take an official public stance against backdooring encryption.
There is value, he said, in “keeping our options open for such a situation.”
Either way, with the attacks in Paris last week, it almost seems like the anti-encryption crowd was somewhat gleeful in their response. Why, here was the exact terrorist attack they needed to push their agenda.
And, of course, the idea of mandated backdoors is back on the table, with Senator John McCain announcing plans to introduce just such legislation:
“In the Senate Armed Services we're going to have hearings on it and we're going to have legislation,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who chairs the committee, told reporters Tuesday, calling the status quo “unacceptable.”Of course, that legislation was ready to go, sitting in a top drawer just waiting for this kind of situation. And now we have to waste all sorts of time responding to this idiocy even though just months ago we went through this whole debate all over again, during which it was pretty clear that backdooring encryption makes us all much less safe. It puts everyone at greater risk, not less.
So the question remains: why do officials and politicians like Senator McCain want to undermine our safety and security? And, even more bizarrely, how is this the same John McCain who was on the other side during the last crypto wars?
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Filed Under: backdoors, encryption, going dark, john mccain
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Cricket
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Re: Cricket
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Re: Re: Cricket
Not to mention baseball & softball coaches and players using sign language! Ever wonder why the tv cameras are always trying to get the catcher's signs to the pitcher?
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Re: Cricket
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When you don't know WHAT to do...
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McCain (and other technophobes). You - cannot - create - a - foolproof - backdoor. It WILL be broken.
You might as well build roads that the bad guys can't use. What? You can't?! Oh my.
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Re:
can you protect elections without encryption?
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Fiancial Institutions
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Re: Fiancial Institutions
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With backdoored encryption, or no encryption, the government CAN protect voting.
It is in the public interest to protect the voters from the wrong candidate being elected.
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Whats encryption have to do with elections?
The most corrupt politician always wins, has nothing to do with your vote.
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He might be able to understand that statement. Maybe...
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If McCain is okay with Russia, China or terrorists having access to his personal encrypted files or the encrypted files of the US, then by all means, put a back door in.
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Re:
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So there wouldn't be a security vulnerability, there would be lots, and the odds of all of them staying secret for more than a week is lower than zero.
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Snowden
Obviously Snowden the actual person wouldn't have leaked the actual key but Alrich Ames certainly might have...
When you have secrets, they WILL be revealed eventually if they are shared with anyone outside of your own mind.
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Re: Snowden
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if only we had accountability
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Re: if only we had accountability
You mean like voting them out of office?
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Re: Re: if only we had accountability
That suffices for mere differences of opinion. There really should be a firmer sanction for violation of the oath to uphold the Constitution.
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Re: Re: if only we had accountability
Too many people still believe the idea of "if you've done nothing wrong, then you've got nothing to hide". So why should they care if there's a backdoor?
And too many people also use insecure, public wifi because it's easy, without even thinking that their data could be stolen.
So another hole in security isn't really that big of a deal.
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Re: Re: if only we had accountability
1. Can you vote someone out of office? (seems to me the only say in it is at elections and then it is not always possible to vote someone out, while it is always possible to vote someone in! "Voting out" is an interpretation, not an action.)
2. How can a New Yorker vote any representative from Nebraska out? (FPTP and Geographically chosen candidates do not produce very nationally accountable candidates.)
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Re: if only we had accountability
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V
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so, kill all the mathematicians?
are we going to waterboard all the Cryptography coders to get them to create the unicorn key...
or just straight nailgun?
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Re: so, kill all the mathematicians?
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Re: Re: so, kill all the mathematicians?
Unfortunately a way to kill mathematics has yet to be discovered.
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Re: Re: Re: so, kill all the mathematicians?
who should we kill then?
drones then!! we can also drone foreign mathematicians?
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Re: Re: Re: so, kill all the mathematicians?
so next generation will not know what encryption is
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Re: Re: Re: so, kill all the mathematicians?
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Re: Re: so, kill all the mathematicians?
Only criminals will have math capabilities.
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Re: Re: Re: so, kill all the mathematicians?
The US education system has had that goal for some time now.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: so, kill all the mathematicians?
Therefore math is political and should be made illegal!
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Data Collection
From Project Escalation to the newest Mete data gathered by the NSA. This information has been shared with allies in hopes of stopping these acts of terrorism.
AND IT HASN'T worked
How is back door entrance to encryption going to be a game changer.
Maybe they should start looking at how they conduct business, rather than strip our rights and protections away one by one
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Re: Data Collection
it has worked, for what it is designed for.
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Data Collection
From Project Escalation to the newest Meta data gathered by the NSA. This information has been shared with allies in hopes of stopping these acts of terrorism.
AND IT HASN'T worked
How is back door entrance to encryption going to be a game changer.
Maybe they should start looking at how they conduct business, rather than strip our rights and protections away one by one
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do you mean unsecure security?
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 18th, 2015 @ 8:54am
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“Yeah, I would,” he said.
But exactly how McCain and his allies might accomplish this is unclear."
TORTURE??
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/260522-paris-revives-battle-over-data-encr yption
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Because we loose our collective fucking minds each time an attack happens.
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because there is a "collective mind" ...
right???
check your premises and try again.
read.
think.
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you talk like a perfect sheep: DOUBLETHINK
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Hello, boys and girls -- our vocabulary-builder Word Of The Day is "SENILITY". Can you say "senility"?
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FTFY.
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Why Won't The Backdoor Concept Die?
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Re: Why Won't The Backdoor Concept Die?
Clipper chip- key
golden- key
unicorn- key
leprechaun/santa- key
knight blood only- key
pure hearth only- key
good guys only- key
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Re: Why Won't The Backdoor Concept Die?
I think the answer to both of these questions is actually going to be the very old saw "Follow The Money". It would not surprise me at all to find out who is constantly putting up the money to keep pushing this agenda.
The bad part is that the supposed bad guys they want to catch are not going to use the broken encryption. They are going to keep using the existing good encryption and create more "NOT BROKEN" encryption and use that.
Only those US citizens forced to use the broken encryption will be exposed (to everybody in the world) and anybody with a little bit of brains will be adding their own un-broken encryption on top of the broken encryption.
One fall-out I hope they are preparing for is the increased costs to business as people lose faith in the "non" security of online transactions and banks, stores, and government offices are going to have to start hiring a lot more workers to service the people who have to come to the store/shop/office/tellers to transact business because all of the online security will be broken.
Good Luck with That!
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Re: Re: Why Won't The Backdoor Concept Die?
Please do not be so pessimistic.
With a bit of luck the law abiding citizens of all other nations will get to use broken encryption also.
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Re: Re: Re: Why Won't The Backdoor Concept Die?
Yea, that'll work.
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Re: Why Won't The Backdoor Concept Die?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography
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Re: Re: Why Won't The Backdoor Concept Die?
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Maybe we should just email Senator McCain that clip.
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I am sure he has a hot Lewinsky boy that prints em for him.
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or maybe with luck his suv can play dvds, but he does not know how
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It's kind of like the circle of life, but replace "life" with "politics".
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Meanwhile we will just go ahead and make stronger crypto than ever. Choke on that Mccain
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because that is not their function nor aim?
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I mean, if he wants encryption backdoored, why not go all the way and insist that all communications by any channel can be examined by the security services at any time.
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No evidence
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Gleeful
"he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished."
Proverbs 17:5
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Background checks required for PS4 purchases;
Some cities will have 'buy back' programs to get PS4's off the street.
We don't want to see any more kids holding game controllers killed by cops.
Dianne Feinstein will rest easier, now.
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An advantage of open source is that you can't hide backdoors in it. They will be found by others and removed
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they cannot argue leguitimacy anymore
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Yeah, like people will just slow down and drive 55.
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Re: Yeah, like people will just slow down and drive 55.
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Its all about spying
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Backdoor
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Obama
It might actually be a smart move to take no stance; imagine this becoming a purely partisan issue.
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