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Encryption is hard to implement right, but by its nature, it can be implemented at the ends, outside of the transmission network. Ironically, one of the groups

Encryption is hard to implement right, but by its nature, it can be implemented at the ends, outside of the transmission network. Ironically, one of the groups working hardest to enable and promote end-to-end secure communications technology is NIST, ie, "the Government."

AnthonyMouse 13y ago
>Ironically, one of the groups working hardest to enable and promote end-to-end secure communications technology is NIST, ie, "the Government." I don't see the irony. It's just the nature of government. The government isn't one person, it's competing factions with conflicting interests. The ideal in cryptography is to minimize the attack surface and eliminate vulnerabilities. If NIST adopts poor cryptographic standards which fail in that regard then they lose face and risk having their dominion over those matters reduced. Their incentives therefore align well with those of the general public. On the other hand, the FBI's job is to put humans in prison. Security vulnerabilities are their friend because they're often legally allowed to exploit them. And as a bonus, the bad guys can exploit them too -- more bad guys (real or imaginary) means larger law enforcement and defense budgets.
- brownbat 13y ago
  Agreed, this was what I was pointing out. Government is a complex and multifaceted enterprise, but people often treat it as a monolith, especially in conspiracy theories. There's a great line in "What Chinese Hackers Get Wrong About Washington:" This is the most pervasive of of all Washington legends: that politicians in Washington are ceaselessly, ruthlessly, effectively scheming. That everything that happens fits into somebody’s plan. It doesn’t. Maybe it started out with a scheme, but soon enough everyone is, at best, reacting, and at worst, failing to react, and always, always they’re doing it with less information than they need. That’s been a key lesson I’ve learned working as a reporter and political observer in Washington: No one can carry out complicated plans. All parties and groups are fractious and bumbling. But everyone always thinks everyone else is efficiently and ruthlessly implementing long-term schemes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/25/what-chinas-hackers-get-wrong-about-washington/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/25/w...

AnthonyMouse 13y ago

>Ironically, one of the groups working hardest to enable and promote end-to-end secure communications technology is NIST, ie, "the Government." I don't see the irony. It's just the nature of government. The government isn't one person, it's competing factions with conflicting interests. The ideal in cryptography is to minimize the attack surface and eliminate vulnerabilities. If NIST adopts poor cryptographic standards which fail in that regard then they lose face and risk having their dominion over those matters reduced. Their incentives therefore align well with those of the general public. On the other hand, the FBI's job is to put humans in prison. Security vulnerabilities are their friend because they're often legally allowed to exploit them. And as a bonus, the bad guys can exploit them too -- more bad guys (real or imaginary) means larger law enforcement and defense budgets.

brownbat 13y ago
Agreed, this was what I was pointing out. Government is a complex and multifaceted enterprise, but people often treat it as a monolith, especially in conspiracy theories. There's a great line in "What Chinese Hackers Get Wrong About Washington:" This is the most pervasive of of all Washington legends: that politicians in Washington are ceaselessly, ruthlessly, effectively scheming. That everything that happens fits into somebody’s plan. It doesn’t. Maybe it started out with a scheme, but soon enough everyone is, at best, reacting, and at worst, failing to react, and always, always they’re doing it with less information than they need. That’s been a key lesson I’ve learned working as a reporter and political observer in Washington: No one can carry out complicated plans. All parties and groups are fractious and bumbling. But everyone always thinks everyone else is efficiently and ruthlessly implementing long-term schemes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/25/what-chinas-hackers-get-wrong-about-washington/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/25/w...