NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Encryption Now!
All, I am so incredibly tired of watching so many people, organizations, and governments dancing around an obvious fact. *ALL* Internet communications should be encrypted end-to-end, with strong encryption not subject to decryption on demand by third parties. This would by and large solve any potential DPI abuse problems immediately (traffic analysis would still provide some information unless steps were taken to mask data flow patterns as well, a significantly complex task). The current state of the Internet, with so much traffic in the clear, is the functional equivalent of what we'd have if most mail in the U.S. postal system was being sent around on postcards. It is my strong belief that if suitable tools had been available during early ARPANET/Internet development, we would have built strong crypto into the basic infrastructure of the Net, and certainly into email, from the word go. I remember thinking about this very early on, but given the capabilities at the time it was simply impractical. My sympathy is extremely limited for governments' arguments insisting that access to encrypted communications is crucial for security. Being able to spy on communications is certainly *handy* in all sorts of ways for both legitimate and abusive government activities. But it is a giant step toward totalitarianism to insist that it's the government's *right* to have such access, just as it would be *handy* to have government cameras in every room of every building, but arguing that a right exists to do this would be inane. The real bad guys are already moving rapidly toward strong encryption systems and "hidden message" modalities that will render most of their communications effectively invulnerable in most cases. Government attempts to build backdoors into communications systems mainly puts at risk the rights of honest citizens, and as we've seen time and time again such backdoors can fundamentally weaken overall system security, opening the path to illicit access to communications channels -- even resulting in spying on government officials themselves. The world's honest Internet users deserve at least the same communications security as the crooks! Encrypt. Encrypt. Encrypt. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz Quora: http://www.quora.com/Lauren-Weinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com - - - On 03/03 11:40, Keith Oborn wrote: > > A prime example of just how a combination of ill-informed news media and politicians can muddy the waters and make it harder to get sensible regulation of the industry. > > Phorm was not "deployed" in the UK. It was trialled, perhaps with dubious legality, by BT, and then dumped by UK ISPs, as were the other equivalent systems. Despite Phorm's faults as a company (and there are many), having spent a lot of time looking at their system I know I'd trust it to anonymize my browsing habits and make it hard for anyone to identify me. > > Unlike Google. > > As for DPI in UK ISPs, most have used it for years. I can't vouch for the "email snooping" story, which is indeed a very dubious use. All uses I am aware of are for the purpose of (EG) maintaining interactive performance when non-interactive applications start to swamp the pipe. We may argue whether that is "neutral" or not, but it is not an invasion of privacy. One UK ISP even had plaudits from their users when they announced that they were doing just that - and the ISP in question is a subsidiary of BT. > > On Mar 3, 2011, at 9:23 AM, Lauren Weinstein wrote: > > > > > Former UK Labour Minister urges crackdown on ISP use of DPI > > > > http://j.mp/gMrlNl (BBC) > > > > --Lauren-- > > Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren > > Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org > > Founder: > > - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org > > - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org > > - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com > > Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy > > Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com > > Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein > > Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz > > Quora: http://www.quora.com/Lauren-Weinstein > > Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com > >