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Yeah, there's also the fact that you can't use a digital private key as a physical murder weapon in quite the same way.
by Benjammer 11y ago
Yeah, there's also the fact that you can't use a digital private key as a physical murder weapon in quite the same way.
- paulddraper 11y agoYou can use encryption to perpetrate terrible crimes. That's the whole reason politicians talk about controlling it, e.g. with France. And queue the arguments: it's just a tool, it's inevitable, etc. --- Now that I think more about it, one difference is that a gun is more useful for survival, hunting, etc. A more "basic" need in a sense.
- nitrogen 11y agoReplace "encryption" with any of cars, knives, food, rat poison, drain cleaner, plastic wrap, dogs, lasers, urine, syringes, air, water, concrete, VCRs ... to see why this is an inconsequential point.
- paulddraper 11y agoI agree.
- Benjammer 11y agoYeah I agree, I just think there's something a bit more visceral about shooting someone with a gun (or using any other physical weapon that shoots or cuts or stabs) rather than using encryption to set up a scenario that would cause harm in some way indirectly from the perpetrator. I would think this is why there are those restrictions on guns that seem pretty weird when you talk about applying the same rules to encryption.
- paulddraper 11y agovisceral "relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect" Yeah, you hit it. Feelings > intellect
- Godel_unicode 11y agoWhat do you think would happen if someone planted cryptolocker-inspired malware on a planes avionics suite and denies it's use to the flight crew? Especially one of the newer models which are exclusively fly-by-wire?
- nitrogen 11y agoRidiculous hypotheticals neither enlighten nor inform this discussion.
- Godel_unicode 11y agoWhy is that a ridiculous hypothetical, but "omg they'll decrypt everyone's phones" isn't?
- nitrogen 11y agoBecause one comes from Hollywood-style make believe, and the other comes straight from the government's spokespeople?
- Godel_unicode 11y agoIt's happened to power plants and hospitals. You might want to recalibrate your idea of what is realistic and what is hyperbolic.
- nitrogen 11y agoCryptolocker attacks have very little to do ideologically with encryption; it's a side show to the main event, the fact that networks are vulnerable to infiltration. Those attacks could happen with or without encryption in the malware, but could be reduced in frequency and severity by using strong systems with strong encryption on the victims' side. The airplane bit is where the scenario goes completely off the rails wrt encryption's involvement, but again, using encryption and strong security on the airplane's systems would reduce or eliminate the risk.