“One key slide notes that “most of the public have never heard” of end-to-end encryption – adding that this means “people can be easily swayed” on the issue. The same slide notes that the campaign “must not start a privacy vs safety debate.”
For anyone who is in the group of people who don’t know what end to end encryption is.
It’s the principle of securing communications between two parties in such a manner that no one outside of those parties can ever read it. The decryption key is never shared with the company providing the service. It’s used all over the internet to secure all sorts of things.
The UK government wants a magic backdoor that only they can use so they can read any messages at will but no one else can use it. It is logically impossible, encryption is a mathematical transformation of plain text into cipher text and has no idea who anyone is. If a backdoor was to be introduced then it’ll be found by nation state hackers and crime groups and it’ll break privacy and security across the entire internet.
Britain trying to convince the world it gives a shit about kids.
I can see why it could be bad… think about national security, children and being able to see what parties politicians gone to.
> child safety
Ah there it is…every time UK gov wants to ramp up surveillance they rope in this justification.
Basically this means anything you send online. Whenever you Access your bank. Or read your emails etc
That anyone could use this back door to jump in at any point of the process
If the government has a magic back door into everything, so does any other second rate hacker
End to end protection keeps you and your information safe. And must continue to exist
Anyone doing illegal shit is probably using tails at least. The ones with half a brain anyway.
Ok, but start it as a pilot programme in parliament and Whitehall. Dog food the solution first, then we’ll talk.
[Get your copies while it’s still legal.](https://github.com/openssl/openssl) In all seriousness though, this kind of scaremongering is a blatant power grab. Anybody who understands encryption knows this “think of the children” line is just them wanting a finger in every pie for the sake of power, and that weakening crypto with a “government backdoor” is worst idea ever. Right now, they have no way of stopping end to end encryption, so their best bet is to sway public opinion (or create an environment whereby MPs don’t want to disagree with new anti-crypto legislation for fear of being villainised by mouth-breathing middle Englanders for “endangering the children”). Once they have it on the books, they can crack down on the big boys like Facebook to prevent E2E being too prevalent. It won’t stop those determined to communicate securely, but it will strip away a layer of protection for the average, everyday user and provide the UK gov with another lever of control.
Honestly, the security services have gotten used to having all the data they could ever want since Ultra, and are bricking it that they can no longer just scrape for keywords and metadata links to map out entire networks of terrorists and criminals.
Edit:
> Most experts are highly doubtful, and believe the government is searching for the digital equivalent of alchemy.
My sides. Accurate as fuck.
The worst part is, it may work. Remember how stupid the average person is, and then realise that half of the country is stupider than that
To all politicians who want to ban encryption, you should know this:
You will be the first target.
Hackers, journalists, foreign powers, conspiracy theorists, they will all come after you first.
Every single phone call, message, email, bank transaction, all your investments and payments, your exact whereabouts at any time on any day and who you met with, it will ALL be published.
In 24 hours your bank accounts will be drained, you will be bankrupted, and you will be destroyed.
11 comments
[Actual Rolling Stone article.](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/revealed-uk-government-publicity-blitz-to-undermine-privacy-encryption-1285453/)
“One key slide notes that “most of the public have never heard” of end-to-end encryption – adding that this means “people can be easily swayed” on the issue. The same slide notes that the campaign “must not start a privacy vs safety debate.”
For anyone who is in the group of people who don’t know what end to end encryption is.
It’s the principle of securing communications between two parties in such a manner that no one outside of those parties can ever read it. The decryption key is never shared with the company providing the service. It’s used all over the internet to secure all sorts of things.
The UK government wants a magic backdoor that only they can use so they can read any messages at will but no one else can use it. It is logically impossible, encryption is a mathematical transformation of plain text into cipher text and has no idea who anyone is. If a backdoor was to be introduced then it’ll be found by nation state hackers and crime groups and it’ll break privacy and security across the entire internet.
Britain trying to convince the world it gives a shit about kids.
I can see why it could be bad… think about national security, children and being able to see what parties politicians gone to.
> child safety
Ah there it is…every time UK gov wants to ramp up surveillance they rope in this justification.
Basically this means anything you send online. Whenever you Access your bank. Or read your emails etc
That anyone could use this back door to jump in at any point of the process
If the government has a magic back door into everything, so does any other second rate hacker
End to end protection keeps you and your information safe. And must continue to exist
Anyone doing illegal shit is probably using tails at least. The ones with half a brain anyway.
Ok, but start it as a pilot programme in parliament and Whitehall. Dog food the solution first, then we’ll talk.
[Get your copies while it’s still legal.](https://github.com/openssl/openssl) In all seriousness though, this kind of scaremongering is a blatant power grab. Anybody who understands encryption knows this “think of the children” line is just them wanting a finger in every pie for the sake of power, and that weakening crypto with a “government backdoor” is worst idea ever. Right now, they have no way of stopping end to end encryption, so their best bet is to sway public opinion (or create an environment whereby MPs don’t want to disagree with new anti-crypto legislation for fear of being villainised by mouth-breathing middle Englanders for “endangering the children”). Once they have it on the books, they can crack down on the big boys like Facebook to prevent E2E being too prevalent. It won’t stop those determined to communicate securely, but it will strip away a layer of protection for the average, everyday user and provide the UK gov with another lever of control.
Honestly, the security services have gotten used to having all the data they could ever want since Ultra, and are bricking it that they can no longer just scrape for keywords and metadata links to map out entire networks of terrorists and criminals.
Edit:
> Most experts are highly doubtful, and believe the government is searching for the digital equivalent of alchemy.
My sides. Accurate as fuck.
The worst part is, it may work. Remember how stupid the average person is, and then realise that half of the country is stupider than that
To all politicians who want to ban encryption, you should know this:
You will be the first target.
Hackers, journalists, foreign powers, conspiracy theorists, they will all come after you first.
Every single phone call, message, email, bank transaction, all your investments and payments, your exact whereabouts at any time on any day and who you met with, it will ALL be published.
In 24 hours your bank accounts will be drained, you will be bankrupted, and you will be destroyed.
Think on that.
Be careful what you wish for.