French Government Wants A 'Global Initiative' To Undermine Encryption And Put Everyone At Risk
from the this-is-a-bad,-bad-idea dept
Some bad ideas never seem to die. It appears that the French government is working to enlist other countries to try to undermine encryption and put us all at much greater risk. That's about the only way to read the news that French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve is promoting a "global initiative" to "fight" messaging encryption used by ISIS.Messaging encryption, widely used by Islamist extremists to plan attacks, needs to be fought at international level, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Thursday, and he wants Germany to help him promote a global initiative.Remember, of course, that much of the planning and communications for the Paris attacks last year were done without encryption, and in fact much of the planning was done fairly out in the open with little effort to mask what was happening. Of course, that won't always be true -- and certainly it's quite likely that people are plotting all sorts of nasty stuff with encryption -- but even then that doesn't actually result in law enforcement "going dark" as they'd have you believe. First of all, encryption is still difficult to use and easy to mess up. In fact, most reports suggest that ISIS is pretty bad about its opsec when it comes to encryption. And, even if they are successfully using encryption, they still leave plenty of other breadcrumbs for law enforcement and the intelligence community to track.
He meets his German counterpart, Thomas de Maiziere, on Aug. 23 in Paris and they will discuss a European initiative with a view to launching an international action plan, Cazeneuve said.
On top of that, any effort to weaken encryption is both dangerous and pointless. A mandate for backdoors or something similar only introduces vulnerabilities into encryption that will be targeted by criminals (and possibly terrorists!) putting many, many, many more people at risk. And it's pointless because there are enough open source encryption products at this point that trying to regulate other products won't help much. ISIS will just focus on using code they already have access to.
So none of this adds up, other than as a stupid reactionary move out of fear and ignorance. A "global initiative" to fight encryption ignores the fact that encryption isn't some invisibility cloak that masks all terrorist activity. It also makes us all less safe, and probably won't stop ISIS from actually using strong encryption. So what is the point other than shadowboxing and making it look like politicians are doing something, when they're not sure what to do about possible attacks?
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Filed Under: bernard cazeneuve, encryption, france, global initiative, going dark, isis
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The finger point!
Maybe they should re-read the Sherlock Holmes novels for some direction.
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"We won't allow you to put our citizens at risk, we'll do it ourselves!"
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The banking system uses encryption
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Aug 12th, 2016 @ 7:47pm
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Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Aug 12th, 2016 @ 7:47pm
A foot would be defined as the distance light travels in one nanosecond. That's 11.8 inches, close enough to a foot that people won't notice. Then make the foot 10 inches. Make a mile 5 kilofeet. That's 93% of the current mile... close enough again. See? Metric while still being familiar, and more based on something tangible than the meter!
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Re: The banking system uses encryption
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and... it's gone!
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didn't this already happen this week?
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french what?
ya know these twits keep this up in 20 year isis wll have all of us jon to get rd of the panzies
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Re: didn't this already happen this week?
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Data Colection
Never-mind the War On Terror is actually showing tangible results. ISIL is fifteen thousand fighters strong at the moment. And, they possess thread-like holds on their past conquests. 15k down from an estimated 55k to 70k active fighters by previous accounts, and the press release by US gov this week.
Open Access for more security nationally, or internationally, is a red-herring. The GOP is reconsidering its stands on encryption because of the DNC Hack.
I thought the French would have become more involved in the Coalition, but there doesn't seem to be any serious military reaction from that Government.
But, encryption is the topic, and ISIL doesn't use it, and if they do, the Governments are not telling us - they would be showing us the cards they're holding.
Encryption, anonymity, or anything tool that prevents collecting data is not good for Business - the Governments intruding into private citizens business.
This is afterthought concerning French Domestic policy. They have had more than their fair share of assaults on their security, but half of these attacks are not actually attributable to ISIL. It is an after-the-fact claims made by the terror organization - an awful lot of their attacks seem to share the same motus of Mental Health issues. The flags were there. The people just were not educated enough, or willing to play the roll of armchair Psychologist - although both the Armchair Doc and the educated Doc cannot write prescriptions.
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Re: GOOD CALL!!!
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Re: didn't this already happen this week?
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Those who lead as a tyrant or a dictator never follow the same rules and laws they force on others.
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Re: The banking system uses encryption
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Hurt the good guys, help the bad guys
Criminals and terrorists don't obey the law. That's why they're criminals.
If you mandate backdoors or weaken encryption, all you accomplish is to weaken the defenses of the law-abiding, while leaving the bad guys with strong encryption.
You make the situation worse rather than better.
(Worse for civil society, that is. If you're law enforcement, you might care more about "making busts" than you do about protecting citizens. If so, I suppose backdoors look good to you.)
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Re: The banking system uses encryption
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I Beg to Differ
No, it's theater. It is the same as shoe removal to get through security to board an airplane. It is to give the appearance of actually doing something for the common good.
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Re:
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Humans
Privacy is not a privilege. Stand guard.
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Stupid is as stupid does
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Maginot line
The same type of thinking that lead to the horrific disaster of the Maginot line, can certainly be credited with this current idiocy on the part of the French government.
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Re: The banking system uses encryption
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I suspect French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve represents the opinion of France...
Cazeneuve wants backdoored encryption because he's in a bourgeois position. And he probably wants it for the proletariat only, not his fellow elites.
As he's French, he should be aware of Napoleonic Law.
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Re: Stupid is as stupid does
Reminds me of the time the French welcomed the German Nazi's with welcome arms. Of course, both France and Germany would like for everyone to forget about that.
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Human Rights Inventors ?
Shame on you IMPOSTOR
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Re: "We won't allow you to put our citizens at risk, we'll do it ourselves!"
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Re:
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Re: Socialist Begginings - Hidden Future
I'll answer a couple of other posts while I'm getting to you. Both Companies have seemed to have melted into the Sofa; VW has never been ostracized let alone punished for their offenses - sneaky Germans right? :D Micro$oft has absolutely tefloned themselves past the 900 million Android fiasco. Unless, unless you actually make a concerted effort to find the news on this, nobody is talking about - is going to talk about it.
What would happen to any one private individual - I am hypothesizing as Companies and Corporations are viewed as People, don't forget - if they brought a Virus to light, from the climes of some deep, dark African or South American jungle, and it was one hundred percent lethal, and was going to kill millions - Volkswagen - or a billion people - Micro$oft - Do we honestly think that this wouldn't be front page news for the rest of our natural lives? That is what a backdoor to encryption is. It is a virus with one hundred percent lethality, and it cannot be stopped, or cured with an apology. Much like Nature in its own way with every "backdoor" to the Human Immune System - Nature, that Company, is untouchable, and unapologetic.
The French Revolution was a battle for Freedom, Liberty, Equality, and Property - it was a very bloody end to a regime that didn't "[make] them eat cake", but preferred to have them labour in conditions that were so inhospitable and alien, a human body could not exist - physically, let alone mentally, in Grotesque (I use the Italian noun form). They demanded rights...
We have our rights! Let us all use them. BUT, and this I definitely have no answer for, how does anyone or anything get a billion people united?
If M$ Windows had a backdoor that could be exploited where it absolutely made one billion computers dead, would that get our intentions and inclinations on the right path? What is the right path? I started University thirsty and hungry for knowledge, I graduated - I owed a hundred grand... there was no Google and Wikipedia, I expected to be constantly tested, nevertheless prepared , for whatever was thrown at me.
How does someone WIN, and ever have to be argued with again over encryption?
Memories are not what they used to be. They are days long, as compared to the decades that used to exist. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have just passed us. I did what I could to remind people of those two horror shows - experiments with a new concept of industrialized death - Wikipedia the whole process that led to the creation of atomic weapons, but nobody remembered. I was re-tweeted a dozen times - not the thousands of outraged voices that should have been singing. People just don't remember, or they just don't care - that is what makes a Trump Presidency so scary. Trump's a backdoor to a world of hurt - FOR EVERY ONE LIVING... it's as simple as that.
A Politician wants backdoors, for information gathering purposes, don't wash this any other way, and VW and M$ are prime examples of what happens with any backdoor, exploited on an industrialized level.
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Re:
... and if it doesn't it's not like my personal data is on the line, as a government employee I will of course continue to be able to use secure protections for my data, as is only right."
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Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Aug 12th, 2016 @ 7:47pm
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A country where some muslims are causing trouble (a minority though, most muslims go as quietly as christians here) and because of political-correctness, they are immune from anything.
Here is an example : a man did pee on a Coran : got thrown to jail. A guy puts a catholic bible in a jar of urine : it's called art.
Our government is a government of morons without balls. They will put to their knees and suck whatever comes in front of their mouth to stay in power.
No balls, no honor. The same assholes we did have in the 1930's and everyone knows how it ended against the war-mongering Germany at that time.
France will be, with Belgium, one of the first countries to fall and become like Lebanon.
Trump is right when he says France is no longer France.
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dumb people are going to be dumb
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