The encryption debate

[Stumpy Pepys]

Admitting to being undecided is not a common admission on messageboards, but I'm still in two minds about this. And it's easy to get sidetracked into debates about subjects like mass data collection.

I think we can all agree on the following:

1. There are good, non-criminal reasons for individuals and companies to encrypt data
2. Encryption is mathematics. You can't ban mathematics
3. Governments and law enforcers putting backdoors and weakening encryption protocols make us all more vulnerable
4. Give the police an inch and they'll take a yard.

However here's what I'm not sure about. There has never been a point in history where I could own a space that is inaccessible to anyone but myself (other than my brain). Law enforcement has always, with warrants — and often for good reason – been able to access houses, safes, lock-ups, telephone communications and so on.

I genuinely don't know the consequences of this.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

The encryption debate

2. Encryption is mathematics. You can't ban mathematics

You can restrict its use in computer architecture though, can't you, and control the dissemination of mathematical info which is obtainable in meaningful timescales only by the use of giant supercomputers which exist only in large institutions. For example, very large primes used in RSA encryption: my vague recollection from reading something about the world of encryption years ago is that by some kind of code of practice the civilian sector doesn't use or make available a usably large number of primes of size greater than X digits (say 80 digits or whatever), unlike the military/security services who have access to maths computing output info on larger primes.

[Mumpo]

The encryption debate

Kvtu cf dbsfgvm xibu zpv tbz. Zpv ofwfs lopx xip jt mjtufojoh.

[Stumpy Pepys]

The encryption debate

Evariste Euler Gauss wrote:

2. Encryption is mathematics. You can't ban mathematics

You can restrict its use in computer architecture though …

You can. And the NSA deliberately weakened online encryption standards to make them easier for them to crack.

However, if I were to send you an encrypted email using something like PGP, the contents would be practically uncrackable.

Of course, being email, the metadata is unencrypted and a snooper would know that I sent you an encrypted message.

[hobbes]

The encryption debate

Mumpo wrote: Kvtu cf dbsfgvm xibu zpv tbz. Zpv ofwfs lopx xip jt mjtufojoh.

Don't talk with your mouth full.