Surprising, really? [LWN.net]

Surprising, really?

Posted Jul 27, 2013 11:16 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (guest, #15091)
In reply to: Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys (CNET) by dlang
Parent article: Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys (CNET)

However, what is surprising is the fact that the government has created a secret interpretation of the law that they claim says that they are allowed to do this.

Really? When there are secret laws, secret courts and secret orders, why do you think the secrecy is needed at all?

Hint: the terrorists don't really care about the number of FISA orders granted, or about broad orders that request data from telecoms; they know very well that electronic communications can (and will) be intercepted. Proof by reductio ad absurdum: otherwise they would be incarcerated by now. However, the general populace do care about these small details, as seen in the response to Snowden's revelations.

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Surprising, really?

Posted Jul 28, 2013 15:38 UTC (Sun) by raven667 (guest, #5198) [Link] (1 responses)

The high-security world can be quite insane, Dr. Strangelove "no fighting in the war room" levels of insane, with multiple levels of pretending ignorance of things that everyone knows full well, misdirection, etc. The funny thing is that during the cold war, each side had largely penetrated the other with moles so much of the security practice amounted to kabuki theatre because it was all pretend secrecy any way.

I think a lot of secrecy practice is because the participants think they are cool, real operators, the more security they practice and to prevent embarrassment when they screw up. "Saving Lives(tm)" is pretty far down on the list, so are "We The People".

Surprising, really?

Posted Jul 29, 2013 16:10 UTC (Mon) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

There must exist some counterpoint to this madness. Usually it lies in the participants' ability to experience shame of themselves, but when it fails there must be some higher court (of the public variety which admittedly is not as cool as a "secret court") that sets things straight.