Re: perhaps itself encrypted with a key known only to law enforcement
@Zippy
In my example system the generated plaintext private key doesn't have to be stored, it can be deleted. But yes, you're right - there's an assumption that this is done properly, and that the NSA weren't running a side-channel attacks on the computer generating the key, or bribing the WhatsApp employee who generated it, or that Facebook are just a front for the CIA/Alien overlords, and so on. But if any of these are the case, we have bigger problems.
Designing a system to minimize this risk is complex, and it's also quite good fun as a thought exercise, but it's straying from the (really very simple) technical point I am trying to make: a properly implemented backdoor for law enforcement is technically possible without opening that backdoor to everyone. Sorry. I don't like it much either, for what it's worth.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
