‘Five Eyes’ Nations Quietly Demand Government Access to Encrypted Data
Ultimately these governments can break security at any level. It’s not just the encryption or the apps — if they require the OS manufacturers to cooperate with them, they can record all user input and output. Likewise hardware manufacturers.<p>It’s not just phones or computers, either — The UK was well known for having high CCTV density well before the proliferation of low-cost digital cameras; By my estimate is now well within government spending limits to put <i>all</i> movement under surveillance by putting cameras on every corner which combine ANPR and facial recognition to cover pedestrians and cyclists as well as motorists; and laser diodes are so cheap every window, never mind person, can be surveilled with laser microscopes.<p>This is also cheap enough for criminals to do it. I recently got (fake) scam blackmail emails demanding bitcoin under the threat that they had used my webcam to record me watching porn (duct tape over my webcam says they didn’t), but imagine a local crime gang doing that with a drone pointing at your window.<p>We have to change a lot of stuff in out society very quickly to keep us all safe. We need a world where none of us <i>need</i> secrets, because very soon we won’t have the ability to keep them. We also need the ability to survive <i>ourselves</i> breaking the law, because the law was created with the (at the time reasonable) belief that only important violations would be brought to the attention of the authorities, because most of us can’t get through the day without violating several [1], and because even though current state-of-the-art A.I. can’t automatically enforce all those laws, we should assume that is coming.<p>But not just what, also how fast it changes and how slow we react: How long ago was it demonstrated that keys can be duplicated from a single image taken by a telephoto lens? And how many keys have been made safe against it since? The only thing keeping us safe is that even the bad actors aren’t keeping up with the tech. That isn’t good, because it means that whoever does use it will look, what’s the phrase, “indistinguishable from magic”.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mises.org&#x2F;library&#x2F;decriminalize-average-man" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mises.org&#x2F;library&#x2F;decriminalize-average-man</a>