Brian Prince, of eWeek.com, in an article dated September 27, 2010 reports on the Obama Administration's proposal to require all Internet-based communication services (including BlackBerry, Facebook, and Skype) to permit the Government to eavesdrop on the conversation – provided it first obtains an Article III warrant.

The article quotes Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who says "'This isn't a question where there's this thing that can make us safer, should we do it or should we not do it . . . This thing that they want won't make us safer.  It will make us more vulnerable.  Not just to government misuse, but to third parties.'"  

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"'Right now, the government has so many different ways to get access to our communication with really very little justification, and very little court oversight.  Taking away our ability to do encryption is just another hit, and it's one that I think . . . has tremendous collateral effect.'"   

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The eWeek.com article continues, "The rules appear to be coming together around these ideas: Communications services that encrypt messages must have a way to unscramble them; foreign-based providers that do business inside the United States must have a domestic office capable of performing intercepts; and developers of peer-to-peer software must redesign their services to allow file interception."  

Creating these electronic "back doors" and giving the Government the only key raises other concerns, aside from the due process/civil liberties concerns championed by Cohn.  According to John Kindervag, an analyst with Forrester Research:

"'If our government is able to get into these systems or look at this traffic, then othert entities will be able to do so.  We must disabuse ourselves of any notion that our government can do it in a manner that is completely secure and cannot be exploited by non-authorized or malicious actors." 

The full text of the article can be found at the links above, or here. 

Brian Prince, of eWeek.com, in an article dated September 27, 2010 reports on the Obama Administration's proposal to require all Internet-based communication services (including BlackBerry, Facebook, and Skype) to permit the Government to eavesdrop on the conversation – provided it first obtains an Article III warrant.

The article quotes Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who says "'This isn't a question where there's this thing that can make us safer, should we do it or should we not do it . . . This thing that they want won't make us safer.  It will make us more vulnerable.  Not just to government misuse, but to third parties.'"  

***

"'Right now, the government has so many different ways to get access to our communication with really very little justification, and very little court oversight.  Taking away our ability to do encryption is just another hit, and it's one that I think . . . has tremendous collateral effect.'"   

***

The eWeek.com article continues, "The rules appear to be coming together around these ideas: Communications services that encrypt messages must have a way to unscramble them; foreign-based providers that do business inside the United States must have a domestic office capable of performing intercepts; and developers of peer-to-peer software must redesign their services to allow file interception."  

Creating these electronic "back doors" and giving the Government the only key raises other concerns, aside from the due process/civil liberties concerns championed by Cohn.  According to John Kindervag, an analyst with Forrester Research:

"'If our government is able to get into these systems or look at this traffic, then othert entities will be able to do so.  We must disabuse ourselves of any notion that our government can do it in a manner that is completely secure and cannot be exploited by non-authorized or malicious actors." 

The full text of the article can be found at the links above, or here.