“It’s only Tuesday and already this week Apple has come out twice — guns a-blazing — against efforts by law enforcement agencies to weaken public-key encryption in the name of national security,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. “The issue came up in the 60 Minutes interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook that aired Sunday, and it surfaced again Monday when the company filed an eight-page brief opposing Britain’s Investigatory Powers Bill — the so-called ‘snooper charter.'”
“The political winds may shift—for encryption when the NSA runs amok, against encryption when terrorists strike — but the crux of the matter never changes. It’s a matter of arithmetic,” P.E.D. reports. “In one 2009 experiment, it took hundreds of computers two years to guess the prime factor of a single 232-digit number. Researchers estimated that a 1024-bit key would take 1,000 times longer.”
Read more in the full article here.
“Politicians around the globe tell us that for our own protection and security we must grant surveillance agencies a backdoor to today’s unbreakable encryption,” Jean-Louis Gassée writes for Monday Note. “While one is tempted to ask, glibly, if these leaders are ignorant, delusional, or dishonest – or all of the above — the question of granting or denying selective access to encrypted communications doesn’t lend itself to glib answer.”
“Modern cryptography is unbreakable,” Gassée writes. “And even when computers become incrementally faster and threaten to break the code, we can simply move to longer keys (longer passwords, if you will).”
Much more in the full article, “Let’s Outlaw Math,” here.
MacDailyNews Take: G. K. Chesterton said it best: It isn’t that they cannot see the solution. It is that they cannot see the problem.
There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, December 2015
SEE ALSO:
Hillary Clinton wants a ‘Manhattan Project’ to cure encryption; Snowden, Andreessen mock – December 21, 2015
Apple launches counteroffensive against UK’s proposed new surveillance law – December 21, 2015
Manhattan DA fires back after Apple CEO Cook defends stance on encryption – December 21, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook opposes government back door to encryption – December 21, 2015
Donald Trump: To stop ISIS recruiting, maybe we should be talking to Bill Gates about ‘closing that Internet up in some way’ – December 21, 2015
Hillary Clinton: We need to put Silicon Valley tech firms to ‘work at disrupting ISIS’ – December 7, 2015
Do not let the government snoops weaken encryption – November 4, 2015
Tim Cook attacks Google, U.S. federal government over right to privacy abuses – June 3, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook advocates privacy, says terrorists should be ‘eliminated’ – February 27, 2015
Apple’s Tim Cook warns of ‘dire consequences’ of sacrificing privacy for security – February 13, 2015
Apple’s iPhone encryption is a godsend, even if government snoops and cops hate it – October 8, 2014
Short-timer U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder blasts Apple for protecting users’ privacy against government overreach – September 30, 2014
FBI blasts Apple for protective users’ privacy by locking government, police out of iPhones and iPads – September 25, 2014
Apple thinks different about privacy – September 23, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
Would you trade privacy for national security? Most Americans wouldn’t – August 6, 2014
Apple begins encrypting iCloud email sent between providers – July 15, 2014
Obama administration demands master encryption keys from firms in order to conduct electronic surveillance against Internet users – July 24, 2013
U.S. NSA seeks to build quantum computer to crack most types of encryption – January 3, 2014
Apple’s iMessage encryption trips up U.S. feds’ surveillance – April 4, 2013