[Cryptography] ZDNet: "US government pushed tech firms to hand over source code"

Tom Mitchell mitch at niftyegg.com
Thu Mar 17 20:24:20 EDT 2016


On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 11:21 AM, Perry E. Metzger <perry at piermont.com>
wrote:

>   NEW YORK -- The US government has made numerous attempts to obtain
>   source code from tech companies in an effort to find security flaws
>   that could be used for surveillance or investigations.
>
>   The government has demanded source code in civil cases filed under
>   seal but also by seeking clandestine rulings authorized under the
>   secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a person with
>   direct knowledge of these demands told ZDNet. We're not naming the
>   person as they relayed information that is likely classified.
>
>   With these hearings held in secret and away from the public gaze, the
>   person said that the tech companies hit by these demands are losing
>   "most of the time."
>
>
>
> http://www.zdnet.com/article/us-government-pushed-tech-firms-to-hand-over-source-code/
>
>
This is a real issue but if we ignore the constitutional issues
a secret disclosure to the government for their comfort that
the system they run is what they think it is.  Or to discover flaws
that can be used offensively is different than the Apple issue.

The public nature of the Apple demand places apple in the
law enforcement service business.  It would do so in such
a way that the service could be demanded by anyone.
There is a line that says additional legal warrants  but there is
no prohibition for this service outside of a US legal warrant.

The constitutional issue is that the net we are seeing cast
is large, global and indiscriminate.

Technology makes wide sweeping tools economical and
near easy.  It is too easy for a loop "for i=1 to 10" to be
transformed into a loop "for i =1 to 2^100".   The bounds
are effectively limited only by money and bandwidth.

These are differences.  I can worry about what the secrets
hide.   I do worry what I see in public and that makes me
believe the domain of secrets is very much larger than
I would like.

I am reminded of a child hood event when a local cop
was moonlighting as a bank guard.   Nice guy, beautiful
wife and newborn.  One day he just filled a bag full of
cash.   Temptation is real.   Trust but verify....
but how do the courts verify that the limits of their warrant
are maintained?




-- 
  T o m    M i t c h e l l
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