Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

August 1, 2016

Law Enforcement Shouldn’t Be Omniscient

Filed under: Cryptography,Cybersecurity,Encryption — Patrick Durusau @ 3:37 pm

Andy Greenberg’s introduction to the genius behind Signal, Meet Moxie Marlinspike, The Anarchist Bringing Encryption To All Of Us, is a great read.

Just a sample to get you going:


For any cypherpunk with an FBI file, it’s already an interesting morning. At the very moment the Cryptographers’ Panel takes the stage, Apple and the FBI are at the height of a six-week battle, arguing in front of the House Judiciary Commit­tee over the FBI’s demand that Apple help it access an encrypted ­iPhone 5c owned by San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook. Before that hearing ends, Apple’s general counsel will argue that doing so would set a dangerous legal precedent, inviting foreign govern­ments to make similar demands, and that the crypto-cracking software could be co-opted by criminals or spies.

The standoff quickly becomes the topic of the RSA panel, and Marlinspike waits politely for his turn to speak. Then he makes a far simpler and more radical argument than any advanced by Apple: Perhaps law enforcement shouldn’t be omniscient. “They already have a tremendous amount of information,” he tells the packed ballroom. He points out that the FBI had accessed Farook’s call logs as well as an older phone backup. “What the FBI seems to be saying is that we need this because we might be missing something. Obliquely, they’re asking us to take steps toward a world where that isn’t possible. And I don’t know if that’s the world we want to live in.”

Marlinspike follows this remark with a statement that practically no one else in the privacy community is willing to make in public: that yes, people will use encryption to do illegal things. And that may just be the whole point. “I actually think that law enforcement should be difficult,” Marlinspike says, looking calmly out at the crowd. “And I think it should actually be possible to break the law.”

I don’t find Marlinspike’s:

I think it should actually be possible to break the law.

surprising or shocking.

Nearly everyone in law enforcement and government agrees with Marlinspike, it all depends on whose laws and for what purpose?

Murder is against the law in North Korea but several governments would applaud anyone who used encryption to arrange slipping a knife between the ribs of Kim Jong-un.

Those same governments and their citizens use encryption to carry on industrial espionage, spying on military research, trade or government negotiations, etc.

I’m happy with non-omniscient law enforcement.

How about you?

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