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Seems like a failure of the tech community that most people don’t understand the ramifications of backdoors. People can also point to the example of China where
by yibg 7y ago
Seems like a failure of the tech community that most people don’t understand the ramifications of backdoors. People can also point to the example of China where there are indeed government backdoors and things are fine (from the government can get access but others can’t point of view). Clearly we don’t want to be like China in this regard but it does give an example of a “working” backdoor setup.
- cr0sh 7y ago> but it does give an example of a “working” backdoor setup. I'd argue that it's actually giving the illusion of a working setup - not that the setup actually works.
- yibg 7y agoWell (one of) the arguments has been that it's possible to put in a secure backdoor such that only folks that should have access has access. In this case the government. In China the backdoor as far as I know is only accessible by the government and hasn't been otherwise exposed yet.
- berbec 7y agoMost governments won't kill you, your family, friends and and anyone you could have communicated with if you release the backdoor.
- pwinnski 7y agoIf I tell a child that 2 + 2 = 4, and show them four blocks in groups of two, and have them draw pictures demonstrating that 2+2=4, and sing songs about 2+2=4, and yet they persist in believing that 2+2=5, is that my failure? The tech community has repeatedly and thoroughly explained the impossibility of secure backdoors, but it is apparently a more difficult thing to grasp than 2+2=4, especially when one does not wish to grasp it.
- wool_gather 7y ago> especially when one does not wish to grasp it. This is the key point. Borrowing from Upton Sinclair, It is difficult to get an authoritarian government functionary to understand something, when his pursuit of power depends on his not understanding it.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoThe way I see it, the general population didn't pay attention[0], and the legislators see this as a problem of colour. What they want is a back door that opens only to people bearing keys of the right colour, and you can't get them to understand that the concept of colour doesn't make sense in the world of bits, for the reasons outlined in [1]. -- [0] - They never do - they don't care, and it's hard to argue why should they care especially about this, over a million other urgent things. Media being saturated with outrage-inducing crap doesn't help push through the noise either. [1] - https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23
- yibg 7y agoIf you are making an argument for something and people aren't convinced, who's issue is that? The tech community wants the general population to be against installing backdoors. If people aren't convinced or don't care, we can take a couple of stances: 1) well, people just are too dumb / don't care enough / stubborn, we've done all we can and it is what it is 2) the message isn't getting through, let's try something different
- pwinnski 7y agoWe have been trying different things since at least the 1980s and the Clipper chip debacle. At _some_ point, this quits being a failure of the tech community. _Some_ people simply are not teachable, because they refuse to listen. No "something different" is going to convince someone of something they don't want to believe. P.S. You didn't say "issue" before, you said "failure." That it's an issue is indisputable. Assigning blame seems counter-productive at best.