Lawmakers don't understand computers

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Thad
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Re: Lawmakers don't understand computers

Postby Thad » Fri Oct 15, 2021 12:27 pm

Missouri gov. calls journalist who found security flaw a “hacker,” threatens to sue

Governor Mike Parson wrote:Through a multi-step process, an individual took the records of at least three educators, decoded the HTML source code, and viewed the SSN of those specific educators.


This is legitimately one of the stupidest sentences I have ever seen. It's worse than "a series of tubes." As Popehat puts it:

Popehat wrote:This is like saying I intercepted somebody’s loud public cell phone call by being able to speak English

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Thad
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Re: Lawmakers don't understand computers

Postby Thad » Mon Jun 12, 2023 1:47 pm

Council on Foreign Relations does a Star Trek Reference: There Are Four Lights: the EARN IT Act Is Back and Still Mathematically Incoherent

(tl;dr you can't make magic backdoors that only break encryption for bad guys)

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Friday
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Re: Lawmakers don't understand computers

Postby Friday » Mon Jun 12, 2023 2:28 pm

Without reading the article:

As I understand it, either an encryption is not broken or it is broken, correct?

Like and it's a big fucking deal whenever a commonly used one gets broken because then everyone has to update all their shit really fucking fast.
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Re: Lawmakers don't understand computers

Postby Thad » Mon Jun 12, 2023 3:50 pm

Right.

As I put it back in 2015:

Thad wrote:Computers are not magic. They do not know who is using them, or for what purpose.

If Alice can break Bob's encryption, then Bob can break Alice's encryption. If America can break ISIS's encrypted communications, then ISIS can break America's encrypted communications. And, not to put too fine a point on it, if the NSA says it's spying on terrorists, it's actually spying on you.

There is not actually any way to make encryption that is only breakable when bad people use it -- any more than there is a way to make an atomic bomb that will only kill bad guys, since you bring up the Manhattan Project, Secretary Clinton. This is kids-on-a-playground "I have a laser-proof shield that only lets my lasers out but won't let your lasers in" shit.


I also covered the same "it's impossible to compromise on this, it's either secure or it isn't" point that the article does with its "4.5 lights" analogy.

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Re: Lawmakers don't understand computers

Postby JD » Mon Jun 12, 2023 7:58 pm

It won't even work against the most serious threats (nation states, organized crime, terrorists) because they already use their own encryption.

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