On Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 8:04 PM jim bell <[1]jdb10987@yahoo.com> wrote:

   [2]https://news.bitcoin.com/lawful-access-to-encrypted-data-act-backdoo
   r/
   US lawmakers have introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act to
   ensure law enforcement can access encrypted information. This bill is
   “a full-frontal nuclear assault on encryption in the United States,”
   one expert says. It requires manufacturers of encrypted devices and
   operating systems to have the ability to decrypt data upon request,
   creating a backdoor requirement.

   This is tragic and thematic news.
   I think it's interesting to raise a parallel with physical locks.  I
   don't know whether people have heard the below before or not.
   In cities, pretty much every building has something like a
   [3]knoxbox.com box on the front for emergency services to use to
   properly enter the building if needed.  I believe they are each a
   secure box that can be opened with 1 key for the whole city, containing
   a copy of the key for the building door within.
   On disassembly of the locking mechanism to these devices, they use the
   same principal as a conventional front door lock, but with radically
   altered form factor.  I don't recall well but they may have had
   something surprising like more than one row of pins, at different
   actual angles from the keyway rather than all up and down like most
   locks.  Additionally the key was not flat like most keys, but bent into
   an unusual shape.
   Efforts to learn to pick normal locks do not produce tools that unlock
   the govcorpmafiamedicalfire [4]knoxbox.com locks.  Similarly locksmiths
   and hardware stores do not have the tools to make these locks either.
   But crafting a key at a makerspace would be easy for anybody with the
   patience to comprehend the lock and to cut metal to precision.
   Of course, doing that would mean that everybody at the maker space
   would see you do it, and everybody near the front door would see you
   open the emergency services box.  People breaking into buildings this
   way probably dress up as someone official.
   It is unfortunate that cities are paying knoxbox to have a key to all
   their buildings, and to make it possible for somebody else to craft
   such a thing, in ways that tenants have no option to reject.  But it
   seems to have worked well for the middle class.  Regarding other
   classes, those who oppress the people worst off probably have other
   ways of getting into their buildings, but it is always nice to reduce
   these ways.  This historical pattern is interesting.
   Regarding emergency medical access and burglary, I have been both very
   concerned regarding my personal security and at extended severe risk of
   medical need, and I can see the value of both changing one's locks to
   prevent access (which is not hard to do), and providing immediate
   access to emergency services when in a time of need.  It would be nice
   if the respect for our preference with regard to which one we need were
   overt.
   Changing the policies of a city is said to be easy but requires
   persistent attending of meetings and talking with people.
   Contrariwise, in some rural areas, it can take so many hours for
   authorities or medics to arrive that nobody actually uses such things
   or even cares what the laws are.  I only see knoxboxes in cities.
   Security is an interesting space that has been run by common obscurity
   and lack-of-education in the physical domain for some time, and this
   has apparently worked well for existing powers.  Cryptographers may
   want to question how much they want to empower those requiring
   backdoors, or give authority to private businesses, when these requests
   are asked by people who do not understand cryptography in the
   slightest.

References

   1. mailto:jdb10987@yahoo.com
   2. https://news.bitcoin.com/lawful-access-to-encrypted-data-act-backdoor/
   3. http://knoxbox.com/
   4. http://knoxbox.com/