UK crypto policy announcement today at 3:30pm

[Carl Ellison]

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Nigel,

	re. section 13:

>13. In developing its policy on encryption, the Government has given 
>serious consideration to the risk that criminals and terrorists will exploit 
>strong encryption techniques to protect their activities from detection by 
>law enforcement agencies.  Encryption might be used to prevent law 
>enforcement agencies from understanding electronic data seized as the result 
>of a search warrant or communications intercepted under a warrant issued by 
>a Secretary of State.

We all know that this is not a risk, it is a certainty and it has nothing to 
do with licensing of TTPs.  If a criminal organisation wants to use strong 
cryptography, it will.  They have shown this ability since at least 1927, 
according to David Kahn.  They will invent their own, if they really need it.
Of course, as Ross Anderson has observed, they don't really need it for the
most part.

A policy truly aimed at improving the lot of law enforcement would drop the 
fantasy of mandated back doors, embrace the need to keep SIGINT most secret, 
and equip law enforcement to deal with what criminals will actually use.  It 
will not attempt to batter honest citizens' privacy in the hope that some of 
that general weakening of privacy will result in one more understood 
criminal conversation.

 - Carl

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