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The first sentence sums up what's wrong with government reactions to crypto. >[...] for the first time in history, anyone could encode and exchange a message t

by ewzimm 12y ago

The first sentence sums up what's wrong with government reactions to crypto. >[...] for the first time in history, anyone could encode and exchange a message that no law enforcement agency had the technical ability to intercept and decode. Here's one famous counterexample: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad People have always been able to communicate secrets. I don't underestimate the value of doing it conveniently, and obviously many people have been caught by lazily talking on a wiretapped phone, but the crypto war is only a war on convenience. There can't possibly be an effective war on communicating secrets unless people just give up trying. If governments want to fight it, they should at least be honest and say they're fighting convenient crypto, not crypto in general. They're fighting crypto that average people can access easily, crypto that makes everyday privacy achievable, not crypto used by coordinated criminals. At least it would make more sense and could lead to a reasonable debate.

lukifer 12y ago
Given the "code == speech" SCOTUS ruling, they may not be able to outlaw crypto tech itself, but they can damn sure throw you in a cage for using it, based on ISP monitoring and mandatory key disclosure. As with guns, the criminals will simply ignore the law. Anti-crypto legislation will be aimed squarely at We The People.
- ewzimm 12y ago
  I agree, but I also think if that happens, crypto will adapt to things like custom protocols built to be indistinguishable from regular traffic. The great thing about code is that there's usually a way to change the rules. The scary part is that it leads to an endless arms race.
  - crpatino 12y ago
    > crypto will adapt to things like custom protocols built to be indistinguishable from regular traffic. The name is steganography, and has been used since ancient times. The best way to ensure the secrecy of a message is to prevent the adversary from learning the existence of the message. Second best is to provide a bunch of big dumb decoys for the real message to hide.

by ewzimm 12y ago

lukifer 12y ago

Given the "code == speech" SCOTUS ruling, they may not be able to outlaw crypto tech itself, but they can damn sure throw you in a cage for using it, based on ISP monitoring and mandatory key disclosure. As with guns, the criminals will simply ignore the law. Anti-crypto legislation will be aimed squarely at We The People.

ewzimm 12y ago
I agree, but I also think if that happens, crypto will adapt to things like custom protocols built to be indistinguishable from regular traffic. The great thing about code is that there's usually a way to change the rules. The scary part is that it leads to an endless arms race.
- crpatino 12y ago
  > crypto will adapt to things like custom protocols built to be indistinguishable from regular traffic. The name is steganography, and has been used since ancient times. The best way to ensure the secrecy of a message is to prevent the adversary from learning the existence of the message. Second best is to provide a bunch of big dumb decoys for the real message to hide.