From: Aron Freed <s009amf@discover.wright.edu> On Sun, 27 Nov 1994, Rick Busdiecker wrote:
[...] If someone commits a `crime' without using cryptography is there less harm to society than if they did use cryptography?
The use of cryptography makes it virtually impossible to know anything.
Bullshit. Advances in technology are making many things easier to do. In addition to making it harder to tap into an arbitrary data communication that is encrypted it has made actually monitoring a specific individual much easier. Bugs are getting much better and much more sophisticated. It is almost at the point where Joe Citizen-Unit can walk into a "Spy Shop (tm)" and pick out a set of gear that will allow him to monitor his friends, enemies, and lovers without fear of detection. Bugs, and cameras are getting smaller, better, and cheaper. The ability of the state to monitor those it suspects of breaking laws is in no danger, and anyone who tells you that it encryption is a legitimate threat to law enforcement is either ignorant or a liar. What it does prevent is "fishing expeditions"; it prevents someone from just going out and listening in on thousands of conversations in the hopes of catching a criminal or two. It places the burden of proof upon the prosecutors when it comes to gathering evidence, an American value that is older than our current government.
[...] You might as well get your self your own arsenal of weapons because if you can't trust the govt. you're going to be only trusting yourself. IF that's what ya want, do it. But I want to live in a world where I can at least step outside and breathe in the fresh air..
At least you can at the moment. Who knows what may happen. One interesting thing about governments is that they do not last as long as societies do and struggle to thier last gasp to prevent thier own decay (societies in the cultural-identity/shared-values/common location sense of the word.) In 1917 a wacky Austrian corporal was just another cog in the great machine of the germanic society, in less than twenty years he molded a state that is closer to Orwell's vision than just about any we have ever seen. Twenty years ago an American president could subvert chunks of the national security apparatus in the interests of maintaining his hold on power (and he is remarkable for being the only one that has been caught, IMHO...) I trust the people I work with and live with far more than I do any government agency. The U.S. federal governement, for example, has become so isolated from the reality of it's own citizens that if you trust it as much as you seem to then one day it is quite possible that you will wake up to a very rude surprise. Please stand in line over there with the rest of the sheep... jim