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Comment Re:So then they get another warrant ... (Score 1) 504

Communications is a special legal case. Putting anything else in that category would require a new law.

Ever wondered why some places have strict policies on shredding documents and wiping email? It's because if they have these policies, they're not in legal trouble if they're asked for the material. (They are in trouble if they get rid of data they're legally ordered to collect.) It's perfectly legal to limit one's ability to comply with possible court orders.

Comment Re:Edge routers are expensive (Score 1) 85

First, I'm not talking about adding any additional gear. There's no reason that what I'm talking about can't be handled entirely in the DSLAM or head end or whatever and in the existing CPE hardware that talks to it.

Second, I wasn't really talking about changing the CPE for business customers with fiber connections anyway. They're not (usually) the ones who are constantly on the phone with tech support saying "The Internet is down" when really, they just accidentally unplugged something. I'm talking about providing smarter, preconfigured cable modems and DSL modems for home use.

Comment Re:What's your suggestion for intelligence work? (Score 1) 504

IIRC, the US did a lot of good work in helping crack the four-rotor Enigma cipher, after other Allies had pretty well solved the three-rotor problem. There were other codes and ciphers the US cracked or helped crack.

(Of course, the US also supplied some vulnerabilities. For part of the North Africa campaign, a US military observer was filing excellent and comprehensive reports on the Allied forces in theater, using a code the Germans had a copy of. Once he was recalled, and the German signals intercept unit was destroyed in a chance encounter, Rommel's decision-making seemed less miraculous.)

(Can you find one country that didn't rewrite WWII history for popular consumption? If the rest of the Allies wanted to get their distortions out, they needed to create their own worldwide movie industry.)

Comment Re:why does the CRTC need this list? (Score 2, Insightful) 324

CRTC is nothing more than another bureaucratic regulatory agency that is seeking to expand its powers by doing the bidding of the kings and queens, against the interests of the serfs. Anyone that seeks to limit these new expansions of powers is quickly labeled as wanting "Somalia" or "Dirty air and water" or other such nonsense.

The result, is the fear mongers win, and those are the Bureaucrats and Politicians seeking to expand their power and authority, and bribes and future "consulting agreements"

So, the next time a Libertarian mentions limiting government, and you kneejerk into a "somalia" rant, here is what you're actually promoting. This is actual reality of what your viewpoint actually is advocating. Nice Job A-Hole

Comment Re:Sanity... (Score 1) 504

Do you have case law to back up your interpretation? We won't know for sure unless and until the US Supreme Court rules, but there's indications that the courts will provide at least some password privacy.

IANAL, but the following is my understanding. A subpoena is for civil suits, not criminal. Most privacy fanatics are more afraid of criminal cases, in which case we're talking about search warrants. These usually involve LEOs showing up and collecting whatever is on the warrant, which may be paper files or hard disks or whatever. However, none of these require any cooperation from the defendant. If the defendant refuses to divulge a safe combination, the police can just break it open somehow (so it may be in the defendant's interest to hand over the combination, to avoid destruction of the safe). Requiring any sort of cooperation to collect evidence is getting awfully close to compelling self-incrimination.

Comment Re:Sanity... (Score 1) 504

Encryption keys are different from physical objects. As far as I know, in the US the only cases where the courts have held that a person must surrender the key is when there was definite knowledge of specific incriminating content. For example, the computer that the customs agent had seen child porn on. Things are different in the UK.

Comment Re:So everything is protected by a 4 digit passcod (Score 1) 504

Brute-forcing a 256-bit key (or even a 128-bit key) is not going to happen without changing the laws of physics. The old 56-bit DES key (actually 64 bits, but only 56 of entropy) was vulnerable to being brute-forced. Going from there to a 256-bit key is increasing the amount of work needed by a factor of about 10^60.

Comment Re:So everything is protected by a 4 digit passcod (Score 1) 504

The other problem with this approach is that it requires having the owner in custody, and being willing to torture information out of the owner. This is a much higher bar than just having the phone available. LEOs would like to be able to stick a cable in your phone and suck everything out on the spot, or at least be able to confiscate the phone and send it in.

Comment Re: So everything is protected by a 4 digit passco (Score 1) 504

It's still impossible to break a 128-bit key by brute force, unless you're very, very, very, very,...,very, very lucky. The only reason to use more would be that you expect an attack on the cipher that will make it far easier to solve. I've read that, if we can ever make 128-qubit quantum computers (which may be impossible for us to actually implement), the effective key length might be halved, so I'd suggest 256-bit keys to be really future-proof.

This applies to any cipher where all possible numbers of the key length can be used as keys, which doesn't apply to the asymmetric ciphers I know of. Also, it assumes that there will be no tremendously effective break. (For the theoretically minded, note that all cipher systems are in NP, so a general solution of NP problems would include all crypto.)

Comment Re: I never thought I'd say this... (Score 1) 353

What subsidies can do is make it profitable to make extra food. Food production varies in ways not easily predictable, and aiming for more than enough is a lot more comfortable than aiming for enough. I don't know enough about the subsidies to know if they actually accomplish this, but it is a possible and desirable effect.

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