This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
By Demanding Encryption Backdoors, US Government Is Undermining Global Freedom & Security
Submitted by Mike "rieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
One of the biggest debates happening at the intersection of technology and privacy at the moment revolves around the U.S. government’s fear that the American peasantry may gain access to strong encryption in order to protect their private communications. Naturally, this isn’t something Big Brother wants to see, and the “solution” proposed by the status quo revolves around forcing technology companies to provide a way for the state to have access to all secure communications when they deem it necessary.
Many technology experts have come out strongly against this plan. Leaving aside the potential civil liberties implications of giving the lawless maniacs in political control such power, there’s the notion that if you create access for one group of entitled people, you weaken overall security. Not to mention the fact that if the U.S. claims the right to such privileged access, all other countries will demand the same in return, thus undermining global privacy rights and technology safeguards.
From Motherboard:
When the US demands technology companies install backdoors for law enforcement, it’s okay. But when China demands the same, it’s a whole different story.
The Chinese government is about to pass a new counter terrorism law that would require tech companies operating in the country to turn over encryption keys and include specially crafted code in their software and hardware so that chinese authorities can defeat security measures at will.
Technologists and cryptographers have long warned that you can’t design a secure system that will enable law enforcement—and only law enforcement—to bypass the encryption. The nature of a backdoor door is that it is also a vulnerability, and if discovered, hackers or foreign governments might be able to exploit it, too.
Yet, over the past few months, several US government officials, including the FBI director James Comey, outgoing US Attorney General Eric Holder, and NSA Director Mike Rogers, have all suggested that companies such as Apple and Google should give law enforcement agencies special access to their users’ encrypted data—while somehow offering strong encryption for their users at the same time.
“You can’t have it both ways,” Trevor Timm, the co-founder and the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Motherboard. “If the US forces tech companies to install backdoors in encryption, then tech companies will have no choice but to go along with China when they demand the same power.”
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.
“It’s stunningly shortsighted for the FBI and NSA not to realize this,” Timm added. “By demanding backdoors, these US government agencies are putting everyone’s cybersecurity at risk.”
We are already seeing this play out in embarrassing fashion. Once again highlighting American hypocrisy and shortsightedness, as well as demonstrating that the U.S. government does’t actually stand for anything, other than the notion that “might means right.” Sad.
* * *
For related articles, see:
So Who is James Comey, Obama’s Nominee to Head the FBI?
How the NSA Paid Security Firm $10 Million to Promote Flawed Encryption
Britain’s “War on Terror” Insanity Continues – David Cameron Declares War on Encryption
Flashback to 2007: Obama’s Speech on Warrantless Wiretapping
- 8672 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


The government does everything through the back door.
“By demanding backdoors, these US government agencies are putting everyone’s cybersecurity at risk.” As if its by design....
Of course, if the US government has access to backdoors in American technology, then Israel would also have access to those backdoors.
US government already has access to backdoors
US government doesn't yet have access to backdoors
Funny how Congress adamantly insists that they get a pass from the snooping. I wonder why that is?
No way they get this free pass. In 2006 I was running my mouth that congress and others had to be agreeing to some of the outrageous shit they were doing then because the spooks were listening. Bush Jr. would not be able to resist. Bush Sr. with his CIA orientation would have made sure to amp up funding for that. Told I was paranoid. The NSA on the computers like they are has been in place for a very long time. No way they are not all being black mailed. No way.
Good luck introducing backdoors in a transparent, opensource decentralized system.
You mean like in OpenSSL?
No, I meant bitcoin. :P
Back door is a metaphor for an ass raping, right?
It has cost us biz a lot of$ lost . Even more going forward
Fuck off, everyone is at desert table
http://pastebin.com/trends/week
Consequences bitchez. Really it is the way money works. The ability to sell ideas especially high tech ideas in order to get funding from corrupt politicians and private enterprises always exceeds the ability of those buying to consider all the possibilities. That's why we are 100% certain to destroy all of humanity. It's that F'n simple. When somebody or thing in the future finds the inconel tablets of the Q99X2 from the bottom of the world's oceans (they'll eventually be on the surface of the planet), the first words they/it will read will be: "Humans were a species that had the ability to sell their ideas."
Monitor Hillbillary and Lois Lerner .... and leave us alone !
...
"Mr. Potato Head, back doors are NOT secrets!"
...
So at some point the key gets out. Then who has more to fear? Basic logic says scumbaggery wont be as much fun ever again.
Tim Cook said he would bend over backwards to give a bit of backdoor access to the NSgAy, even though it would be a pain in the ass.
Tim Cook is iGay with a 1970 Casino iWatch that needs a iRollover image to zoom in 20X Magnifier Magnifying Eye Glasses Loupe Lens Jeweler Watch Repair LED Light and lifetime supply of toothpicks to piece as a Stylus Pen device.
I think he bends over forwards.
We can have illegal greeters host the show.
http://cryptome.org/cryptome-cor-natsios-15-0306.htm
What Was the 1990 Immigration Act (IMMACT 90)
Obama needs a Kenya family member to Busboy tables at the Whitehouse for $90,000/yr.
Do you really need back door encryption to decipher Biden's emails?
Seriously though, if back door access was to be granted it would only push people with secrets to hide to some other means of communication or code.
It's so damned easy, it's laughable. EMP over 40.4260° N, 111.9330° W, and you're done.
Either everyone is secure, or no one is secure. Including the government. That's why they will never "crack" Tor. The government uses Tor. What they will do, is take over enough nodes so that they can do that tracking conformation thing and locate hidden services servers.
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-security-advisory-relay-early-traff...
Bullshit TOR is an Intel asset, use it and your traffic is marked out for special attention. You are either ignorant or a shill trying to protect that asset.
NSA Claims TOR Guards Your Privacy Yet TOR Is In Bed With U.S. GovernmentSurely that's why darknet markets are booming on TOR.
Yep, they need cover traffic to disguise their own stuff, the more Joe Public uses TOR, the better it is for the the TLA's.
Unless you know both endpoints your out of luck:
From the TOR website FAQ https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#AmITotallyAnonymous
Tor (like all current practical low-latency anonymity designs) fails when the attacker can see both ends of the communications channel. For example, suppose the attacker controls or watches the Tor relay you choose to enter the network, and also controls or watches the website you visit. In this case, the research community knows no practical low-latency design that can reliably stop the attacker from correlating volume and timing information on the two sides.
So, what should we do? Suppose the attacker controls, or can observe, C relays. Suppose there are N relays total. If you select new entry and exit relays each time you use the network, the attacker will be able to correlate all traffic you send with probability (c/n)2. But profiling is, for most users, as bad as being traced all the time: they want to do something often without an attacker noticing, and the attacker noticing once is as bad as the attacker noticing more often. Thus, choosing many random entries and exits gives the user no chance of escaping profiling by this kind of attacker.
The solution is "entry guards": each Tor client selects a few relays at random to use as entry points, and uses only those relays for her first hop. If those relays are not controlled or observed, the attacker can't win, ever, and the user is secure. If those relays are observed or controlled by the attacker, the attacker sees a larger fraction of the user's traffic — but still the user is no more profiled than before. Thus, the user has some chance (on the order of (n-c)/n) of avoiding profiling, whereas she had none before.
You can read more at An Analysis of the Degradation of Anonymous Protocols, Defending Anonymous Communication Against Passive Logging Attacks, and especially Locating Hidden Servers.
Restricting your entry nodes may also help against attackers who want to run a few Tor nodes and easily enumerate all of the Tor user IP addresses. (Even though they can't learn what destinations the users are talking to, they still might be able to do bad things with just a list of users.) However, that feature won't really become useful until we move to a "directory guard" design as well.
Looks to me like they are desparate to protect their carefully nurtured asset,and convince everyone to keep using it.
I'm about to pull its umbilical cord from the wall at the first sign of abuse of ordinary citizens due to those policies. And you'll see it real soon. Nobody should have to go though life with a needle hanging out of their arm. Government by doing this is committing national suicide. The rest of the world will just shake their heads, and row their boats away from this place. People here will simply go into permanent regression mode. This county will become a model of non-productivity.
"at the first sign of abuse of ordinary citizens due to those policies."
Friend, are you kidding me?
Get pulling.
Known back-doors for the spies will cause a boycott of companies that comply with the US government/police state. As a consequence of US government short sightedness and desire to be Orwellian police will cause some manufactures not to comply and those manufacturers will reap the benefit despite the intimidation from the US government/syndicate. Secondly, software such as TOR, TAILS and VPN services will grow and there is not a f'n thing the US government is going to be able to do about it. Lastly, proprietary encryption tools and crypto service businesses will grow, these services will very likely be developed outside the USA to avoid US government persecution. If you are serious about your business, proprietary data, patents, copyrights and its privacy you will not let government have a back door or the keys to the safe, or leave the possibility open for other criminals to hack you to death. This is/will be another blow to US innovation and exposes the hypocrisy of our government.
Cash for new appliance to order you free food is dead in the water.
Okay, I'm just gonna ask it. "Who is surprised by any of this?" Folks bought this shit and did not know? NO FUCKING WAY. I always knew. We just did not want to confront what it meant directly, we hoped for the best, we hoped no one was abusing it too badly. Well it's here now and short of an EMP suggested up thread, you cannot put this gennie back in the bottle. Be conscious of it, act against it, you bet.
You mean surprised by publicly demanding backdoors,
or surprised by the audacity to demand (or legalize after the fact) something that they've already stealthily implemented in most key products for electronic communication?
And by the way there is no way you can act against it, except for selected devices that you never ever connect to any kind of wired or wireless network.
And even that only helps against direct remote hijacking of your data. The latest Stuxnet successors seem to be able to asyncronously communicate over USB sticks and portable harddisks with their command servers, if both computers are infected, the target has no internet access, but the other computer does.
If they already hacked the firmware of your harddisk or SSD, it (the firmware) may may inject some code into your OS at boottime and then record every keystroke you ever did (for example), onto some "reserve" space of your drive (yeah, that hidden reserve space is not endless, but is suffices for years of keystrokes.)
If that isn't the case and they really want to get your data, they can go into your house/apartment and manipulate your device in your absence without leaving a trace, or simply place a secret camera into your room to record you typing your passwords.
Without a legal system backing and enforcing privacy, you're basically to fight on your own against them all.
I don't trust enforcement is possible. I live assuming all I do is recorded, there if someone wants to check it, there if someone wants to set me up.
My awareness just means I won't be surprised when they come for me.
Sun spot event. EMP. That's about it. And then they will boot all the shit up again after they manufacture what they need.
I don't try to disguise much. I assume they have me when they want me. I count on it that I am not very important.
I don't trust enforcement is possible.
Not sure what you mean by that. Enforcement is never completely possible, but the mosquito bites will keep the elephant at bay.
Engineers whitstle-blowing that their bosses want them to insert backdoors / hidden functions into the code.
Groups of semi-professionals analyzing harddisk firmwares to come up at least with a way to determine if it has been tampered with, without getting torpedoed by DCMA and similar BS.
And so on.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you that my backdoor has been violated !
That's the same sign hung above the oval orifice door.
I never use facecrap, it must rank as the shittiest overrated pile of garbage ever, but it does have one thing in its favor.
Billions of photos of some fucking morons lunch is posted everyday, an it is the easiest thing in the world if you are even slightly savvy to download a stegonography program, use 2048 bit encryption, and stick your important messages in encrypted in a photo of your lunch
Post to fucking facebook and if your recipient knows you only even post pictures of your fucking lunch then its a communication to him.
I actually use a pornsite and hide messages in pictures of Nuland blowing a goat.
So the2re you go you NSA cunts, go search for pics of Nuland blowing the goat because you can be sure there is the details of a plot to blow you fucking half wits to hell, and you can use as much power as China uses in 10 years running your fucking computers for 20 million years trying to decrypt it.
But to show I'm generous here's part of the key ,, its just scrambled
f*‹ì ä)ï[B— Q}%
¯%è ÞÜ›g
Vs ³…ƒ~3 +b3Î K ^ÓÆI¸ö.Ó N°qDFd>Þ Cf¹ÌƒH: Å6zH‰ =c¢v)—u éæ — ’ø â'ð)gCwà P–S1á¶q‹ ìwÇ|1HÕ¸ %"Œ ÷(8z ½|Ç?Í@&w Ý š•¾ Û £‚ :0‚60 @‚7DàK 0¡’ ‹¥ píàù©À¬ ǵô‚±<ÅJ$0ÁaÆ0ÿD0À 0˜!# 0€ ¬‚`@V'— å%ü*á
S •Y䤡c¤a?U?U:U‚y ¡J ¥LsX€ô.e0P! I0G0E C A†?htt p://crl.%æ.À/p·rl€/producà·Ær Aºà·l0TŶH0F0BDå0†8„wLww‘¸Â€ @y0w0u§3/0h0f0 ZX C o p y r i g h t "©` 1 9" - ¨2 0 5`M`¢c o s` fbár ¡ a i n .0Ó0"Ó
$
‘Ô%1¡XêR åáæñ?x £?r¯§WS ‰^2œ¶pà +M04èÀ jäÓ. eH טb!ºEŸ JìÛ/ Qå í2Q/áÝû ÆRýëÆ‚%B ¦8¶6Ì É€»Zi1à ³ ³gG¾Ç â?–³ˆø¾ 9¹é•Îü|¯ ¨ÍÐAàÕ³ /h»Ûlj Ýò¯ÞòµÞ
¶¦Zð†
¹m ™K?{-„l ‡Ü«ˆ Б4¾‚" ¤¼UŠ›üs ÄÉ} ›À•&]Æ ¬´ò~º%pJ {×ŽÑ I z°RR$ô¯ Ý@-å>2X³ JjÝYª-¼ ¤ s8ù@wk 4WÍ8h'‚ øÑoë#À?R óNÕ>jš+ Áõ1qÛAM; Þ﯈eC Q·šuÊŽi IxŠtE¹ Žsw2JK ×h+˜ÅºTê ?Ë¢ Œ»Ø XòÛÜ›ÍØê HCâJ~e²Ü õ-N%g¨àµ º§Ý~^ÁL tɳnãøð íü¹)Å[É6 QÛx}¹2 ^vÒ\;7! ÆÛÉnít* \,QIES° ²³#Ô¡°_
ͧã<›— r”ßÿÁ ¥ßõ©óÚ µüDàèâ<¢ z»»eæM±µ ¡Ùg;°} ;éîQ*Gõ Œ].5ßô ¤.ö7Z+è UšI,—Î ž—F\Ù-¼$ Z•YoMÊÖ@W&1‚Ž@jŠð0Ñ?Ÿ`Ÿ`Ÿ`?Ÿ`Ÿ`Ÿ`Ÿ`‘`r#
’r
+ ²0Bö+ 1¦-ð× 10‘Ù0#‡1 R Œ-Po–OÓ: ÂгAø@÷4µó0R( 1D0B $€"‹8 8W0n dð €w s¡€_CSCm‚ P@„ÒnÐZ Z6ìxÜ”&N ¦
eA’’sX ¿o1y¢ßÕ Éf8ŒS©• ËW~5©„ fÛC¶?§Ô ž-¤Í,Ž* õ÷/ïÀž $›âZù„Ä€ im¸8 ÷Q±Š¡Þk R‘)áü– %un+
;Í] ÷LoãÝ uï¦ß¡º1 YK3b¿ò C^…#ôä9 ¼ÇU;3+Š– åðïVÛ
cu”‹9Ç} |¦\ŒÒ4° 2j·žUÕf ~HW!é§ F_ûÄ÷xö ™Wzíƒuš þn"4Ä<Éò Ä„”• u¾ ¯€[—ŽÛg ØP‘GŠ™n %S2+ëU à›ãlס‚ l¨1‚Š
2(…0w/(o/(/(/(*(!âQ (÷Time-Stˆamp„'³õ‚'
0„' ]0eY'Æ –1P•01120€122924ZN' —1/´Šœ± G¶¿Š¯ú–40Úó•‰,Y"¨ &ÌÝg3ÔŽÀ Q0+…åf ~x"]jgy ]«Y«iG7ü K*ùO ¯/ 'Æ.ÑŽbØþ 5Z˜ûâW q&_Yþ5o Þ`7#¥luÚ gž¬õßr1u ëppkhÖI5 ‚ôæ‘Oêƒ `\…(Ø6t 9tü!B„h µæºf? ´—Ë]”l›f „„x
¦¥~H ÝÂн3K÷ ¹-‚ÝdT·ö ̆n;KuB ˱ZTFC Â/%Õ—éÉ šñþä±H ÂÌDÏoÇk S#lé_ œó ÷Òæ=!‰• Î/_çœÁ,Ï Ð:¦€W{ Ý똓E¯ã wD@¹Épãá ] /óZnòq ƒ–o,Ø`
Well done. I have contemplated this path as well. Sending a kitty pic to a friend with and encrypted message. Mr miffed would prefer a separate one time cypher sent by a different method not embedded in the picture. He explained the algorithms involved for nsa would be fairly extensive for them to break this so they will utilize screening procedures to identify " likely" individuals to narrow the scope. This is the purpose for invading privacy of all. Anyone touching a potential hot site, purposefully or unintentionally would be targeted.
I am not a cat fancier but there are numerous ways to skin them.
Miffed
The more the average Joe and Jean start using encryption the hardest NSA and other government agencies have to work. We need to create a habit from this just like we shower and clean our teeth.
it is a joke, do you not get it? The US government requires backdoors in the hardware and software so it can steal your information. The reason the US government does not want to talk about how the "russians" and "chinese" steal information from US companies is because they are exploiting the backdoors. hahahahahaha
I agree, can't have it both ways. By the way I wrote recently too about the fact that it's time to demand some looks into the proprietary code running everything out there today. Nice deal when you can get it and compile everything into oblivion.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/03/its-time-to-look-at-some-of-proprietary.html
Trust me is a thing of the past.
Backdoor, schmackdoor. I use a truly unbreakable, mutating key encryption called Cryptogra.ph -- even if the company wanted to give the US .gov a backdoor, they could not because there is no door, front or back. The technology is simple yet novel and the process is very fast and versatile.
I tried stegenography with large-sized keys but the problem is that hidden messages can be detected and what NSA can detect, they can usually break -- if the encryption uses any kind of a key. Cryptogra.ph encrypts every byte with a different key from a set of files you have previously supplied or agreed upon. See more at Cryptogra.ph
Cybersecurity is an oxymoron.
Does anybody have any doubt, for instance, that Ms. Clinton's emails were being read not only by NSA, but also by the Russians, the Chinese and the Israelies?
NSA software on ROM of commercial harddisks
http://www.technobuffalo.com/2015/02/17/nsa-spyware-hiding-hard-drives-m...
motherfuckers
Amazing to see White house faggots demanding access to backdoors..don't they get enough where they are?
We have forgotten the lessons these great men taught.
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is a force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
– George Washington"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
Thomas Jefferson
Things are going to change when every country starts making their own electronics components (expecially those which needs to be programed) and stop using those created in US.
guys, why do u use MS and MAc?
Why don't you use linux and gnupg???????????
"Real rights are like Magna Carta: restraints on state power."
Many people I talk to refuse to believe their beloved government would do anything that is not in their best interest. I am told I am over reacting, paranoid, or called the CIA catch phrase- a conspiracy theorist. It seems they believe only a person with authority or high social rank and that is when I whip out the following quote...
"It is distressing to see both England and the United States slipping into such authoritarian constructs."
When I tell them it was made by Jonathon Turley one of our nation's top Constitutional and Military law experts and the second most cited law professor in the country they are surprised. They then counter with "Why haven't I heard of him before?"
If you then attack television as only giving a platform to those voices they want heard you lose them. I am trying to remain positive that a critical mass of awareness will be reached before the government drags us into WWIII but there are days when I seriously doubt it.
Some links that can help you to protect your privacy.:
==== Emails ===
- Riseup - Hushmail - ProtonMail - Unseen
==== VPN ====
- Riseup VPN - VPN Gate *both services are free.
==== OS Linux ====
- The Top 11 Best Linux Distros for 2015 - 6 Excellent Lightweight Linux Distros for x86 and ARM
==== Some Useful Links ====
- PRISM Break
- Secure Messaging Scorecard
- Security in-a-box
- EFF’s Guide to Surveillance Self Defense
- Cryptoparty Handbook
- Bypassing Internet Censorship
- Basic Internet Security
"Some links that can help you to protect your privacy.:
==== Emails ===
- Riseup - Hushmail - ProtonMail - Unseen"
Do NOT use Unseen! I switched from Unseen.is to ProtonMail.ch. Below is why:
http://cryto.net/~joepie91/blog/2014/04/19/why-you-should-stay-away-from...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-qJvhhmnZc
Not to bore everyone with the minor, Govt - ignored item of the USSA's Police State spying being an illegal violation of the U.S.Constitution (yes, you know that document, you can find it in the rest rooms of the Govt on rolls in the bathroom stalls.....
But....the USSA forcing back doors and related into US technological products has effects:
1. Violation of the U.S.Constitution (like the no-hablo engleshs' of the FSArmy care).
2. Significan loss of sales by U.S. tech companies (like any foreign buyers will buy U.S. spyware inflicted tech?! Aside from those who buy to get the backdoor tech secrets so they too can access USSA data).
3. Loss of data security since the enemies (commercial and political) of the USSA will know there are back doors and once that is known, they will find and exploit them. Kind of a case of hiding your spare cash in your closet and then posting on FB that you do.....duh?
But then again, the history of the world shows that once Govt power centers are filled by the corrupt and incompetent, logical and common sense have no place. Greed, evil and stupidity rule. For instance, look at North Korea (what the USSA will be come with enough years of the current Leftish rule). If the NK govt cared about the people it would give at least economic freedom. But what does it do?