Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/26/crypto-denialism.html
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Jesus Fucking Wept. At what point can IT companies politely start asking to speak to an adult when politicians start talking to them about encryption like this?
‘Reasonable assistance’ and been able to read decently encrypted information is like demanding that 2 & 2 is 5.
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In other news, the P.M. announced today that sunlight will no longer be allowed to heat the earth enough to cause global warming. Climate problem solved.
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It’s a difference in mindset. The technical people feel the solution is in math, and not breaking the functionality. The politicians come from a world where the “fix” is in laws and words.
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The Australian reps have their act together, and will arrive at the meeting with a clear diagram showing which of the series of tubes will be blocked off.
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You will pry my crypto key from my bloodied, trembling hands, after a pathetically brief show of resistance. 
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don’t get indian pot smokers so pass some laws and get the police on 'em!
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It never ceases to amaze me the level of cognitive dissonance in the UK Conservative party needed to portray Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on nuclear weapons as been naive whilst somehow believing that kind of weak crypto they want poses no risk to national security…
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Did anyone else notice that apparently the Australian minister and senator can’t spell Ottawa (capital of Canada and the place for the meeting they’re talking about) properly? It doesn’t make me feel very comfortable about their general competence.
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May as well ban whispering as well. No good ever come from whispering.
Is that really all in the law? It looks from here like the law requires ISPs to hand over your encrypted files. They can no more decrypt them than anyone else.
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Umm. No. Next!
Speaking on behalf of all Australians, I can safely say that we’ve been uncomfortable about their general incompetence for years.
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Australian governments have already shown that she believes she can order the nation’s ISPs to block access to certain websites (again, for the record, this hasn’t worked very well).
The ease with which these blocks can be circumvented is amazing. I am IT illiterate and it took me two minutes to find a way to access the blocked sites. This two minutes includes the time spent doing a google search for ‘how to access X website’.
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Reasonable help in my mind goes something like this.
Best of all:
IT: Do you have a warrant?
Gov: no
IT: sorry we don’t comply without a valid warrant.
Real world best case…
Gov: do you have a subscriber with this email xxxxxxxxx.
IT:you have a warrant?
Gov: well the FISA court never says no
IT: well okay, somebody registered with that email yes…
Gov: payment information?
IT: Visa xxxxxxxxx
Gov: what are they doing? can you decrypt their information?
IT: sorry we don’t have the ability to see what they do or decrypt their information all we have is a login timestamp but we don’t log IP address or anything else.
Tafucking da!
There’s somebody who pays for email service?
From the article:
- Search engines must not answer queries about web-pages that carry secure software
Whelp, one more to add the to the law then…
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Sorry, for being late to the party. Sorry for off-topic.
Saw mr.Doctorow’s article about Australian crypto wishes on Liberty Blitzkrieg. But that article comments were closed just 6 hours ago…
Just to offer a different perspective on it.
Destroying crypto legally is like doping drugs, while having disastrous long term effects, they may give real boost short term.
When writers like C.D. look at this from a peaceful netizen perspective, that is bordering with insanity, indeed. In a span of 10-20 years it would make online business and software development in English-speaking states handicapped to the brink of existence.
But is there any real problem in it?
Entrepreneurs and economists many said “brace for impact”, the world financial crisis of 2008 would not stop until global economy is ruined? Then why care about software industry?
If impact is inevitable, then maybe you can at least steer to some chosen place of impact?
If your car slides on icy road out of control, where would you like it to stop finally, on the opposite traffic lane, on some light pole on the shoulder, or with some luck in the snow field over the shoulder?
If the Empire of English-speaking nations is going to WW3 as their chosen target to impact, then mandating total control over citizens communication is not a stupidity but the only rational and unavoidable choice they have to make no matter if they or voters like it or not.
