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Encryption With A Back Door Is NOT Encryption (ktetch.co.uk)

submitted 1 year ago by kjr@kbin.social to c/tech@kbin.social

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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.

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[–] Ronno@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Well, yeah, we know. But the governments around the world apparently don't really care. They want to have control. If only they would realize that this will also hurt them and make them more vulnerable than for the normal citizen. Backdoor in communication would also apply to them, meaning that their communication can also be hacked. Imagine the dirt people could find to blackmail politicians...

[–] lemonflavoured@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Backdoor in communication would also apply to them, meaning that their communication can also be hacked.

I doubt it, actually. There's nothing to stop a government legislating to ban consumer use of E2E encryption while still allowing it for banks or government communications, say.

[–] clb92@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, most government employees are also regular people once they're not at work, and they would be using the backdoored encryption for their personal communication. With the backdoored encryption it would be even easier than before to compromise a couple of them and leverage their access to get into the government systems. That's already a very widely used technique.

[–] kjr@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

@clb92 that sounds like less privacy for citizens, and more easy ways to work for organized mafias.

@Ronno @lemonflavoured

[–] kjr@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Ronno No really, if I understood well the proposal is not that every channel will have a backdoor. Probably that is a request only for citizens, and maybe most companies, but I don't think that it will apply to banks, finance institutions or to the state.
Or maybe I misunderstood something... I'm not sure.

[–] Ronno@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

This is a lose lose type of situation. Less privacy for thee is also less privacy for politicians, they are also citizens themselves. Lets say that they include a backdoor in messaging apps, their private messages are then also vulnerable