According to the New York Times, the Obama Administration is drafting legislation that would require a “backdoor” entryway into all communications systems, and one would have to be written into all cryptographic and “peer to peer” software like Skype. This would enable said government entities unfettered access to pretty much anything we do online, on our cell phones, or anything that is transmitted over commercial communication media, all under the guise of prosecuting criminal activity. Even if it was transmitted using a “secure” connection. Sorry, when one can’t trust the integrity of an encrypted communication due to this backdoor, even the best encryption is rendered useless. Look, the U.S. has enough trouble securing its networks the way they are now! And then to add a new built-in “backdoor”? Our government hasn’t shown any particular aptitude for security. The Chinese have been known to download gigabytes of data months or years before the breach was even discovered. If our government has the ability to eavesdrop, that could and probably would be hijacked by foreign countries to gain intelligence on us, just like what happened to Google a few months back.
Edit: More proof of this possibility from this story here. Specifically:
Among traffic rerouted via China during the 18 minutes was that destined for the websites of the US Senate, the Office of the Secretary of Defence, Nasa and the Commerce Department, the report said.
The one possible exception to this would be data gathered from Facebook; there’s not much intelligence going on there. One would hope the American people stand up and assert themselves on this one. Isn’t it enough we (via the government) just handed trillions of dollars to the crooks on Wall Street? And now this. More from the Electronic Frontier Foundation here.
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