There’s been an increasing call in recent weeks and months for encryption to have government ‘backdoors’ put into them. This is a bad idea. No really, it’s an incredibly bad idea. Even if we took the assumption that it is a push that’s made with only the purest of intentions, and the government universal key is kept 100% safe and secure and never leaked or misused, it’s still a really, unbelievably, stupid idea.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Great article, and spot on about why backdoors in algorithms can’t functionally happen large scale.
One important thing to note that’s touched lightly on in the article though, is that services absolutely can have backdoors. That includes things like SMS messages, which go through various cell phone companies servers, and email, which is stored on your email provider’s servers, as well as common chat apps like Discord. So, if you have to send something sensitive via an uncontrolled channel like that, encrypt it first (using separate encryption tools).
Lol I feel frustrated that this has to be said at all. Isn’t it obvious that a back door of any kind is basically a flare gun inviting hackers to gain access? Politicians are so silly
Makes me angry tax money is used for research and engineering how to break citizen’s encryption, how to make my devices less secure.
Goes against everything I learned in IT security and software engineering in general. Of course this introduces bugs, unexpected side effects, and creates opportunities for 3rd parties with more competence but worse intentions.
Agree. I come from a country (India) where the current ruling government has gone out of its way to misuse laws meant to counter terrorism (UAPA) and used it against activists, lawyers, professors, and students merely for dissenting and peacefully protesting. People have been & are being jailed for years without charges just because the Modi regime wants to muzzle them.
Don’t trust any government because the best govt can be replaced by a dictatorship and then where’ll you be. Every law should be examined for how it can be misused (because it will be) and safeguards put in place to prevent it.
Nah, it’s a great idea. As we know, the bad guys would NEVER use a backdoor put in place for the good guys. So it’s fine.