Let’s just say, “There are ways to defeat this” but I’m not happy about having to do it. It would be MUCH better to defeat it at the legislative level rather than at the technological level:
Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.
Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.
…
James X. Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, said the proposal had “huge implications” and challenged “fundamental elements of the Internet revolution” — including its decentralized design.
“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” he said. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”
But law enforcement officials contend that imposing such a mandate is reasonable and necessary to prevent the erosion of their investigative powers.
It is “Necessary to prevent the erosion of their investigative powers”?
What about the erosion of private communication? It used to be one could have a conversation in their home, while walking across the field or down the road and the conversation was technologically guaranteed to be just between those present. They are now demanding a technological guarantee to eavesdrop on any private conversation, anytime, anywhere.
You can have my crypto keys when you reanimate your cold dead hands.
I’m not interested in preventing erosion of their investigative powers. I think they have too much already.
This is bullshit. Their lawful intercept powers with regard to ISP traffic are already plenty strict enough for any kind of investigation. They just want as much control as they can grab.
The “problem” (as they see it) is that the traffic can be encrypted and sent peer-to-peer with no central decrypt capability rather than going through some sort of central hub with decryption (and “wiretap”) capability at the hub.
Intercepting that traffic at the ISP doesn’t help that much without the keys.
I don’t see what effect that the law could have, except that I still agree that it shouldn’t be passed.
Encryption is just too easy to do. How do you stop it?
Anyone that encrypts something without giving the government the keys goes to jail.
Kinda reminds me of Clipper Chip
GPS attached to your vehicle to track you?
Backscatter X-ray systems at the airport, to show you naked to strangers?
The same technology in vans to look into cars, trucks and HOMES?
Privacy? What is that?
First Property Rights died with Kelo.
Now Liberty is dying.
Next, your life is forfiet at the state’s pleasure.
As you hint, the problem with the technological approach, is that people are lazy, and not inclined to adopt encryption on a wide scale.
John Gilmore funded a project to increase use of encryption for years, but IPSEC is still not widely used.
Did I miss the re-election of Geo. W. Bush as President?
You remember, the guy who was doing all those wire taps(NOT!!!) on those innocent Americans(who just happened to be living outside the US and calling their friends in other countries)?
Based on stuff I’ve seen from past decades, I’m firmly convinced that, by the time something gets leaked to the press, it’s already happening.
They don’t need to “outlaw” encryption, they just need to threaten any ISP that transmits any encrypted protocol that they don’t have a back door to.
When your ISP rejects your PGP message to your banker or your lover, you’ll know they succeeded.