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MI5 Argues for 'Exceptional Access' to Encrypted Messages

Their trying to compile more information on Trump :rolleyes: Kidding. So you're in England and asking, demanding or wishing for back doors or NO encryption at all ? Good luck with that. When this type of request or demand comes up it leads me to think that there already is access to what your asking for and that you just want to give it a name or a law.
 
Kabeyun said:
imagine your family member being murdered by a nut job with an AR-15, suspected contacts with a terrorist organization, and an encrypted iPhone.
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If inclined to vengeance against a relative's murder, seems an "encrypted iPhone" would not stand against aggressively taking down a terrorist organization which SHOULD, as a whole, be taken down anyway.

And I don't see why a terrorist organization would use encryption known compromised by MI5 et al, rather than a rather easily written "home-brew" unbreakable solution. Murdering innocents, with likely banned weapons in likely gun-free zones, indicates they're not inclined to adhering to encryption backdoor laws.
 
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Blackberry had security back-doors installed, to appease China.
How did that work out?
Remember the US having leaks, where everyone who applied for Top Secret Clearance Background Checks, had their personal information stolen, and OPM had to provide everyone Credit Protection.
Curiously, the Federal Government phone at the time was ..... Blackberry
Surely, just a coincidence, right?
By the way, you can find the Blackberry backdoors published on the web; should you be inclined to look for them.
 
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It won't be just terrorist suspects, though, will it, Andrew? You'll want to listen in on everything everyone is doing, "just in case". You won't be able to stop yourselves.

And when people say no, you'll spew out that tired old cliche of 'supporting terrorists and paedophiles' if they object.

Remember how RIPA went here, Andrew? "Only those involved in serious criminal activity will be affected by it" the Home Secretary said. Now its used to catch dog fouling and to check if people live in the school catchment area they claim to.

So, how about no.
 
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ctdonath said:
If inclined to vengeance against a relative's murder, seems an "encrypted iPhone" would not stand against aggressively taking down a terrorist organization which SHOULD, as a whole, be taken down anyway.

And I don't see why a terrorist organization would use encryption known compromised by MI5 et al, rather than a rather easily written "home-brew" unbreakable solution. Murdering innocents, with likely banned weapons in likely gun-free zones, indicates they're not inclined to adhering to encryption backdoor laws.
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Encryption math is easy. Implementation is surprisingly hard to get right. You would be shocked how often professionally coded encryption applications use a limited key space. You would be shocked how often unencrypted data gets cashed to the HD.
 
If MI5 gets a backdoor, how about the NSA, the CIA, the mossad, China, North Korea, ... ? They too will have it!
Encryption only works if there is no backdoor at all.

And any terrorist worth it will use a public domain tool that has no government mandated backdoors.
 
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if they can get backdoor access, then I want to have it too. give it to everyone on the planet the same access too so that way I can see what's in that cute girl's phone on the subway. fair is fair
 
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This is all Bush's, er Obama, er Trump's fault!

Can we all just blame Putin, and call it a day?
 
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I can see both sides of this argument. Yes, citizens need privacy from the government. Yes, the government needs to be able to keep an eye on what the citizens are doing. However, in the history of governmental surveillance of its citizens, the numbers of incidents of a government riding roughshod over citizens is long, and twisted.

It's horrific that the political class says that neither the Constitution and Bill of Rights in America grant a 'right' to privacy. No right to privacy? That's a chilling interpretation.

And government is more locked down than ever. FOIA requests are now routinely dismissed, and documents are being heavily censored. If there was a time when citizens NEED privacy from the jaundiced eye of government, it's now. COINTELPRO baby. It was a thing. Things that are old, are new again? That would be as horrific as bringing back wide wale corduroy pants. YIKES...
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MacLawyer said:
But think of the children.
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And her emails...
 
More tech illiterate people who think they know what they’re talking about. Plus they are willfully ignorant about it because it has been explained to them numerous times.

There is no “only the good guys will have access to the backdoors“.
 
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The problem with adding a backdoor is people. There will be multiple people at apple that know the backdoor exists, and even more that worked on its implementation. Then there are people in the government that know it exists, and use the backdoor.

If any single one of those people leaves their job, they become a target for anyone looking to exploit the backdoor. So I'd give it 3-6 months until it gets exploited by third parties.
 
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They already do this. This is just to get you to "accept it". Look into NSA Prism.

They have every text/call you make, right now, on their servers.
 
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They always turn to terrorism as an excuse to erode privacy rights and it’s a terrible argument.

We already know there were tech savvy members of isis. They have the capability of creating their own encrypted messaging system.

These systems remove privacy from the average citizen, reduce security by adding a potential point of failure while having virtually no effect on the people they claim the backdoors were meant To be used against.
 
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deeddawg said:
Why?
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Because how many right wing nuts in America have been exposed only by people knowledgeable of the plans that notified LE? And if they hadn't? People planning horrific terrorist attacks with bombs and guns have had their planes foiled by friends, family, acquaintances. And if they didn't turn on the planners? Maybe instead of an attack on encryption, they should be offering a bounty for information that leads to the discovery and avoidance of an attack. After 9/11/2001, I said that the moves to attack privacy and encryption would crescendo, and I was, and am, surprised we still have encryption. It's not for lack of effort, but removing all encryption will cast a huge chill on the country, and world. It's a tough road to walk. Trust in government has never been lower. Admittedly deserved, but still...

Government surveillance has turned into the eye of Sauron, hungrily seeking all it can.

What I'm wondering is where the taunting easy encryption tricks that happened during the Bush II administration went. They were ways of putting easily broken encrypted passages in emails and on webpages to tease and taunt government surveillance. *shrug*
 
We have ample evidence that rogue governments like the US and UK and their alphabet spy agencies have used any powers granted to them to violate the privacy of their citizens time and time again. Since they cannot be trusted to obey the same laws that the citizens of their own countries have to, I would be very leery of giving them any access.
 
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