back to article Low Barr: Don't give me that crap about security, just put the backdoors in the encryption, roars US Attorney General

If the cops and Feds can't read people's encrypted messages, you will install backdoors for us, regardless of the security hit, US Attorney General William Barr has told the technology world. While speaking today in New York, Barr demanded eavesdropping mechanisms be added to consumer-level software and devices, mechanisms …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Death Spiral of US Technology Industry

    Who's going to trust a US technology company anymore? Can't trust them as a supplier after Huawei ban. Can't trust the product because it is designed so that it isn't secure.

    US technology companies are barred from supplying Huawei because they put back doors in their products. US technology companies put back doors in their products. Therefore, US technology companies cannot supply US technology companies.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whispers not Allowed

    If the cops and Feds can't ... hear people whispering ... , you will install ... personal recorders ... for us, regardless of the security hit, US Attorney General William Barr has told the technology world. While speaking today in New York, Barr demanded eavesdropping mechanisms be added to ... all P2P activity ... .

    If you're not the military nor in big business, you'll just have to suck it up, and use that ... personal recorder... system for your personal communication and commercial dealings, Barr argued. Otherwise, he claimed, criminals, who are able to ... whisper ... outside the grasp of the law, would have a free hand at the expense of society. And again, over what? ... Whispered ... sex ... and ... private conversation...? Get real, nerds.

  3. streaky

    Yep.

    That's a funny way of saying you no longer want the US to have a tech industry.

  4. NiceCuppaTea

    Whats to stop the tech co's just upping and leaving the US if they dont want to install backdoors? The US doesnt own the internet and without a China like great firewall they cant stop their citizent using apps and services from other countries where encryption isnt banned. Sometimes the old ones are the best....Use a free email account, write a draft message, dont send it. The person you want to communicate with has access to the same account and just reads the draft. Mail is never sent anywhere, nothing to intercept. There are many many ways to talk without other knowing what you say and hardly any of them rely on technological encryption.

    One that spring to mind is going old school and have a particular obscure book that you use for your encryption / decyrption 3 numbers to determine a word which equate to pagenumber, line number, word number. As long as both people have the same book then bobs your uncle, secure comms. You could even have multiple books and have a reserved number pattern or header which instructs the recipient to switch books / which book to use for decryption.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, we think bad people use off-the-shelf packages to communicate? Why would a bad actor use a well known system to communicate. May catch the low skilled actors, but not the highly skilled actor that have the capability to create their own apps/comms system and encryption schemes.

    The approach suggested will just lower the trust in US IT/Cloud providers not to snoop or accidentally release information

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      "So, we think bad people use off-the-shelf packages to communicate?"

      For the same reason that banks and governments use off-the-shelf packages (and related encryption tech) to communicate. They'd be bonkers to trust some code written by non-professionals.

  6. pabc

    am i missing something?

    you can't un-invent the maths that makes encryption happen.

    What's to stop the bad guys deploying their own code based on this maths which isn't backdoored and then using that?

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: am i missing something?

      Why would they need to develop their own code base. Linux and FreeBSD already exist, are tried and tested, using algorithms that have withstood for decades all serious attempts to break them.

    2. jake Silver badge

      Re: am i missing something?

      Nothing is stopping them. They have no real need to do any work, either ... very strong encryption already exists, is in the wild, is available for the price of the download, and can't be swept back into the worm can behind the open stable door.

      However, Barr and his ilk would rather we don't shift the curtain to expose the man behind it.

  7. Tsquares

    Nut BARR.

    Barr must be out of his freaking mind, whatever is left of it.

    Capitalists have ruined our planet and our country. They have been released from all sanity in Dump-Fu¢k's assault on our institutions.

    My privacy is 100% more important than his ability to catch a pervert caller.

    They already have the ability to listen in on live telephone calls, why does Nut Barr need to see our MOST personal device?

    KEEP YOUR FAT ASS FINGERS OFF OF MY FREAKING PHONE, NUT BARR.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Business as usual

    Trump and his side push through something truly ghastly, but are (mostly) prevented from truly benefiting from it due to the outcry. The outcry is turned into a partisan us vs. them issue over the next years.

    Then, when the next Democrat becomes the president, suddenly the by-now politicized outcry is muted, and the new White House then proceeds to do nothing substantial to repeal the particular evil. Instead, in a couple of years, we find out hints that the new capabilities are being used as a matter of course, continuously expanding in scope, just couched in some bureaucratic obfuscation. The next president, either Republican or Democrat, then continues this fuckery, as supporting it has somehow become the bipartisan consensus.

    Fool me once with Dubya and Obama...

  9. Paul Martin

    Careful what you wish for

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/18/mueller-encrypted-messaging/

    Further, the Office learned that some of the individuals we interviewed or whose conduct we investigated-including some associated with the Trump Campaign — deleted relevant communications or communicated during the relevant period using applications that feature encryption or that do not provide for long-term retention of data or communications records. In such cases, the Office was not able to corroborate witness statements through comparison to contemporaneous communications or fully question witnesses about statements that appeared inconsistent with other known facts.

    -- The Mueller Report

  10. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    A few points

    A) What a gaping asshole.

    B) So, he wants to have US vendors do the same things people exactly like him are claiming Huawei is doing, and using as an excuse to try to lock them off the market. Besides being an asshole who does not care about privacy he's a hypocrite.

    C) I'll just stop with Ben Franklin's quote: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

    1. Charles 9

      Re: A few points

      To which I ask, "What happens when (not if) the sacrifice of essential liberty becomes a necessary condition for ANY kind of safety, temporary or otherwise?"

  11. Palf
    Pint

    They shoot horses, don't they?

    I guess that makes Barr a crypto-fascist

  12. Kimo

    Who needs strong encryption?

    Most of our home-grown terrorists here in the US put their info on Facebook and Twitter instead of using secure communications.

  13. Capps

    For the clueless tech-less AG.

    Sir,

    Some of the best encryption is written and deployed by folks beyond the reach of your legal system. So, scream and kick all you want in that little tantrum on the floor. You are not all powerful, and have no background in software or encryption. Please stop making a fool of yourself. Once you take 5 minutes to actually read about encryption, then perhaps after a few math classes you'll realize just how silly and impossible your silly-speak is.

    Please take just one second to review history and how backdoor's have been used by state actors to facilitate assassinations, plant malware, cripple commercial activities and endanger even hospitals and schools. Encryption IS a form of protection against criminals, not just a tool used by criminals.

    Note: Anyone can write an encryption algorithm, I've written several. Anyone is free to make an app and use that encryption. Anyone in any country can do this.

    Passing laws that can not ever be enforced is political grandstanding and nothing more. It weakens our country's security, and endangers law abiding citizens.

  14. steviebuk Silver badge

    Lets start with guns

    We can put backdoors in those. Don't ban them, even I know that won't work in America now, too many off them so will end up with just bad people having them. But if you put a backdoor on them, then only the good people will be able to fire them.

    ;o)

  15. Dylan Fahey

    The Soviet Axiom: "Be Quiet, no one is listening" . Soon to be, "In Russia, crypto has you"

    1. jake Silver badge

      I prefer the old "When three sit down to talk revolution, two are fools and the third is a police spy".

  16. Zangetsu

    australia passed a law demanding backdoors in encryption, about 3 months ago.

    it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

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