[Tech] US government moving to wiretap friendly encryption schemes

[Haven]

The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services -- such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype -- to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday.

Fox News (/spit)

NYT \o/

Looks like silly season has started again, lets hope we get some non-US versions of these services if this becomes an actual requirement. Although looking at it Skype is already headquartered in Luxenberg so this may just become the cost for doing business in the US.

I can see the pro's and con's of this, my gut tell me not to trust governments though and that tends to over-ride other things.

 

[Panda with issues...]

Who watches the watchmen?

 

[thatbloke]

It sounds like they are jumping on the bandwagon of the Middle-Eastern countries that have similar things relating to mobile phones and massive internet firewalls already.

For a country that prides itself on "freedom", this is a slightly worrying development....

And it will still fail horribly because there are other tools that can and will be developed (if they don't exist already) for communicating via the net that will not belong to any of these "major" networks - anyone with half a brain will keep their eye on such changes and adjust accordingly.

 

[thatbloke]

Who watches the watchmen?

...And who watches the watchers that watch the watchmen?

While certainly a valid point, trust has to be able to be placed somewhere along the line...

 

[Panda with issues...]

Out of interest, can they moniter ts?

 

[Panda with issues...]

...And who watches the watchers that watch the watchmen?

While certainly a valid point, trust has to be able to be placed somewhere along the line...

Yes, it should be placed at the start of the line, not three sections back after they have everyone's information.

 

[Haven]

Out of interest, can they moniter ts?

Teamspeak does encrypt communciations, obviously in a two way manner otherwise you wouldn't be able to understand each other That does not mean there are no back doors or means to directly access the API and mirror streams to other end points.

http://forum.teamspeak.com/showthread.php?t=49390

 

[BiG D]

...And who watches the watchers that watch the watchmen?

While certainly a valid point, trust has to be able to be placed somewhere along the line...

You're missing the point, there. The idea isn't that you make some group to monitor what the government is doing. The idea is that the general public is free to monitor them. That certainly would solve your trust issue, unless you don't trust yourself...

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

"They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function," he was quoted as saying.

When i talk to someone on say, skype, does the information pass between us or through a skype server first? If the former, i guess this could be a fundamental change if they want to tap in realtime.

 

[Haven]

When i talk to someone on say, skype, does the information pass between us or through a skype server first? If the former, i guess this could be a fundamental change if they want to tap in realtime.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/support/user-guides/p2pexplained/

Tapping in real time happens at the ISP, all DSL traffic for example terminates at a DSLAM and then directly into the ISP routers. Any government agency wanting to tap an individual would simply force the ISP to comply at this level - in effect it does not matter if your traffic goes through a central server or direct p2p as it all goes through your ISP's routers and hence can be tapped at that level.

The only issue is when your traffic is encrypted and thats what this proposed bill is aiming to address.

 

[Ghostwolf67]

Did i miss the point of the article? I thought they wanted to simply have the power to intercept the internet communication of people under surveillance by the government like they do with phonelines, e-mail and mail. Hell the phone companies have been grabbing their ankles to governemnt institutions for more than 30 years with phone taps. Just because skype isnt a phone company doesnt mean it should be exempt, it still does the exact same job after all.

In this 'wheres the evidence?' world the law needs all the help it can get.

 

[Haven]

Did i miss the point of the article? I thought they wanted to simply have the power to intercept the internet communication of people under surveillance by the government like they do with phonelines, e-mail and mail.

The point I read into this was they want to intercept avoiding any encryption so built in back doors or master keys. They aleady have access to the network data, they just can't always read it.