‘Five Eyes’ Nations Quietly Demand Government Access to Encrypted Data
Of course they are going to ask, and legislators will weigh the political cost&#x2F;benefit to it.<p>My impression from the previous crypto wars and the skirmishes that have followed is, as technologists, we take a very tactical view of technology, and underestimate the intentions of people who understand power and politics the way we understand information systems.<p>The way we see the security of a system, they see the sovereignty of a state. Just as incompleteness in our code can yield system level compromises, incompleteness in their ability to apply their rules to their territories and domains also yields compromises that makes the whole system untrustworthy.<p>I don&#x27;t agree with what I perceive as their Hobbes-ean need for total control, where I think the localized, depth first absolute authority of a state becomes malignant when it is applied breadth first and in totality to all aspects of life, but you can sympathize with the urge without agreeing with it.<p>They should be mindful that post-Snowden, no matter how large the field we live in, people have seen the walls and bars at the perimeter, and that broad perception is likely a greater source of instability than any gaps in the ability of the state to enforce them.<p>Viewed this way, the 5Eyes statement seems unwise.