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Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys (1 Viewer)

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Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys | Politics and Law - CNET News

The U.S. government has attempted to obtain the master encryption keys that Internet companies use to shield millions of users' private Web communications from eavesdropping.

These demands for master encryption keys, which have not been disclosed previously, represent a technological escalation in the clandestine methods that the FBI and the National Security Agency employ when conducting electronic surveillance against Internet users.
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There could be a good reason for having them, but I would feel safer if you didn't.
 
Time to route everything through the secure servers at Sealand. Screw 'em.
 
Moderator's Warning:
Moved to appropriate *Breaking News* forum
 
clownboy said:
Time to route everything through the secure servers at Sealand. Screw 'em.
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A water park sounds like a terrible place for a server farm.
 
Deuce said:
A water park sounds like a terrible place for a server farm.
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For those who don't know - Sealand. They don't report their user activities to any country and do not honor foreign (which is everywhere else) warrants.
 
clownboy said:
For those who don't know - Sealand. They don't report their user activities to any country and do not honor foreign (which is everywhere else) warrants.
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Like the CIA doesn't hack them.
 
There was a time when something like this would require a warrant, and then the company will unlock the specific user files for investigation. Now they want blanket access.

It's amazing how since the NSA whistleblower, instead of easing back on activities, the government has actually increased them. Americans are pushovers. The power grabs will just continue because no one is willing to stand up and do anything about it. We're well on our way to tyranny, folks.
 
MaggieD said:
I think we're just going to have to accept the fact that we have no privacy on the internet. Personally? I never assumed we did.
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We had internet privacy until the wiretapping laws. The government used people's fear of terrorism to start databasing the general public, and everyone just rolled over like a dog and said yes sir because they wanted to fight those darned terrorists.

For the record, the government has had the technology to wiretap every phone in America since the Soviet era, but they used that technology to monitor foreign communications. Our own laws protected us from such invasions. Now those laws are gone, so tyranny is growing right on our own soil.

Don't try so hard to excuse it as, "oh well the internet was never private". What about online banking? Conversations with your relatives on Skype? Cell phone conversations? Do we not have a reasonable expectation that our communications won't be monitored by the government, under the 4th Amendment?

People never learned from the McCarthy era. There was a time when the government violating the 4th would cause a revolt... now people just flip the channel.

MaggieD said:
As true today as it's always been.
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Wrong.
 
Northern Light said:
We had internet privacy until the wiretapping laws. The government used people's fear of terrorism to start databasing the general public, and everyone just rolled over like a dog and said yes sir because they wanted to fight those darned terrorists.

For the record, the government has had the technology to wiretap every phone in America since the Soviet era, but they used that technology to monitor foreign communications. Our own laws protected us from such invasions. Now those laws are gone, so tyranny is growing right on our own soil.

Don't try so hard to excuse it as, "oh well the internet was never private". What about online banking? Conversations with your relatives on Skype? Cell phone conversations? Do we not have a reasonable expectation that our communications won't be monitored by the government, under the 4th Amendment?

People never learned from the McCarthy era. There was a time when the government violating the 4th would cause a revolt... now people just flip the channel.
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I hear you. Gives me pause when I think of banking and other records where I'm transmitting information on line -- purchases, etc. I'll have to think about this.
 
MaggieD said:
I think we're just going to have to accept the fact that we have no privacy on the internet. Personally? I never assumed we did.



As true today as it's always been.
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Not a bad idea because there is no such thing as privacy on the electronic spectrum
 
Blue_State said:
Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys | Politics and Law - CNET News



There could be a good reason for having them, but I would feel safer if you didn't.
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I always assumed that the NSA could break them anyway. They hassled the founder of PGP for decades over this very thing, except PGP always swore there were no master decrypt keys and refused to build one.

Even if you electronically encrypt, still best to use a one-time use disposable code even on the encrypted message. Besides, I think encrypting anything electronically just piques there interest to take a look.
 
Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys | Politics and Law - CNET News

The U.S. government has attempted to obtain the master encryption keys that Internet companies use to shield millions of users' private Web communications from eavesdropping.

These demands for master encryption keys, which have not been disclosed previously, represent a technological escalation in the clandestine methods that the FBI and the National Security Agency employ when conducting electronic surveillance against Internet users.
Click to expand...

The IRS, NSA, Department of Justice, and FBI abuses of power; is anyone not concerned about the course of action and direction the US government has been taking regarding citizens' civil liberties?

Since the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the term "Big Brother" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance.
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Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Computation will be so powerful that someone with a recording device could rewrite reality as recorded from his perspective with a device and a good plan if it was realistic enough. I guess having the ability to tap into the raw original recording could be useful.
 
if it actually took individual warrants to use the key, i'd be more receptive. as things stand, however, not only no, but **** no.
 
clownboy said:
For those who don't know - Sealand. They don't report their user activities to any country and do not honor foreign (which is everywhere else) warrants.
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They don't report user activity because nobody cares about their users enough to ask, and nobody cares enough to issue warrants for any of the morons who live there. Wait a second, I don't think anybody actually lives there.
 
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