[Cryptography] In the latest unexpected ransomware twist ...

[jrzx]

On Thursday, June 10th, 2021 at 2:36 PM, Phillip Hallam-Baker <phill at hallambaker.com> wrote:
> I distinguish government regulation of end-to-end encryption
> from regulation of 'crypto-currencies' by pointing out that
> the first is words and the second is a deed.

That is like the distinction between speech and "hate speech".
If the state allows end to end encryption, we can and will
run crypto currency over it. We have been expecting a crypto
crackdown for some time, and have designs on the drawing board,
and gog and gitea servers where the USG's writ does not run.

And, in any case, the government is far more interested in
silencing encrypted "hate speech" than in suppressing encrypted
financial transactions. Any regulation is going to go after
free speech forums, before it goes after crypto currency.
I see free speech sites like nearlyfreespeech.net fleeing their
proudly proclaimed principles in abject terror, while the
government regulators happily embrace crypto currency exchanges
like Kraken.

Maybe Kraken slipped them a fiver. Where crypto currency meets
regulation, both regulators and exchanges are fat and happy,
while the free speech crowd are soiling their pants.

> China has even less ability to defend its critical
> infrastructure because they copy off the US rather than
> building indigenous security expertise.

You are out of date. China can and does build its own CPUs
and motherboard chipsets, which the US no longer can.

countries around the world want to buy Chinese tech, which is
probably rooted with Chinese spyware, rather than American tech,
which is probably rooted with American spyare

As for example: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-officials-using-huawei-tech-opens-door-chinese-spying-n1136956

America is losing its tech advantage across the board,
from hypersonic missiles to spyware.

The Chinese CPUs and chipsets are slow and expensive compared
to Korean and Taiwanese cpus and chipsets, but they are plenty
good enough for email, word processing, and even moderate
resolution video. The Chinese government now requires that all
security critical government activities are performed on made in
China computers running a made in China skew of linux.

Chinese priorities in making their people get Chinese made
computers indicates that they suspect that all computers
made outside China are backdoored by their enemies. Famously
they insisted that Microsoft remove a great deal of suspicious stuff
from the Chinese version of Windows. But they were still not happy, so
commanded that their own version of windows be written - which was
implemented on top of linux, and is actually linux disguised as windows.
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