U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet

[John Young]

Lucky Green, ex-PGP official, said recently at a history of cpunks
panel that the principal disappointment of PGP.com was that too
few individuals used encryption, and that most of its use was
by corporations complying with customer privacy regulations
not for comsec.

With this in mind, individuals and corporations apparently do not
see the need for comsec, so in that sense Eric Schmidt, Google
apologist, is correct that privacy is not a big deal for those with
nothing to hide.

Phil Zimmermann, also on the panel, said nothing about PGP,
said he has moved on to a secure phone development.

The consensus was that Internet security was dead in the
water, only snake oil was successful at convincing customers
their privacy was "taken very seriously." If you read privacy
policies, and most of us don't as they evolve to be more slippery,
they are virtually identical in what they promise and admit
to customer betrayal for "lawful interception compliance."

There are a few law firms which specialize in these misleading
policies and write them to fit "acceptable industry standards."
Think of the ex-NIST and ex-NSA experts now advising
industry and government to issue regular scare stories about
cyberthreats.

The privacy watchdogs and verification services fit right in
with this flimflam -- all agree that officials have the right to
violate privacy, "it's the law," and that ISPs and Internet
operators must cooperate. You want privacy, do not use
digital technology, but don't tell the gaga Internet user that.

So, if the cpunk greying beards are right, the encryption battle
of the 1990s was lost, not won. Pretending to have won is
exactly what was agreed to develop the market for "unbreakable"
crypto.

One of the cpunks on the panel said the encryption battle
was not only lost, but now some of the proponents of public
comsec are now happily making money by keeping the snake
oil protection racket alive and well. Wikileaks was cited as
an example but far from alone, financial data protection leads
the pack of misrepresentation.

My private report explains all this in detail and what to do to
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