Germany Ready to Undermine Encryption in Terror Fight

[frogboy]

Germany has become the latest Western nation to signal its intent to undermine encryption in the name of preventing terrorism.

Central and state-level ministers have apparently expressed dismay that terrorists are using apps such as WhatsApp and Signal to communicate out of the reach of the authorities.

“We can't allow there to be areas that are practically outside the law", said interior minister Thomas de Maiziere, according to Reuters.

He reportedly added that Berlin is planning a new law which will effectively give the authorities the right to view private messages.

It’s not known how the government intends to achieve its ends. It’s unlikely it would be able to force companies like Apple and Facebook to put backdoors in their products or services and a ban is most likely unworkable.

One option being mooted is "source telecom surveillance", where the authorities would force telecoms providers to install software on their customers’ devices which effectively bypasses the encrypted app to intercept messages before they are scrambled.

Read More. Germany Ready to Undermine Encryption in Terror Fight

 

[In2an3_PpG]

Sorry to all German citizens if any of the laws their coming up with do pass.

 

[frogboy]

Sorry to all German citizens if any of the laws their coming up with do pass.

Yes agreed it will or at least may not be good for our many German members.

 

[frogboy]

Although I do fear very much most of us are not too far behind with this.

 

[In2an3_PpG]

Although I do fear very much most of us are not too far behind with this.

Oh, I agree with you on that. Only a matter of time.

 

[ravi prakash saini]

cyber security vs real security
what option do we have

 

[Janl1992l]

I never understand why they want to remove the enctyption. Well, are they realy thinking terrorists use only internet and encrypted data? or they are unable to use other secure ways? That is simply stupid and have no logic whatsoever. the only reason i gues is to better control the mass and have an "eye" over anything we do online or in our life. Thats bullshit we have no privacy and it is getting worse every day. i hate how big cooperations/Agencys and Leaders want to see anything we do and have full control. Its like we are all salves without much knowing it.

 

[Deletedmessiah]

No way they can prevent hackers to get access to backdoors. Next few years are gonna be interesting.

 

[Arequire]

Strange. Last time I checked politicians were public servants indebted to their citizenry. I didn't realise intercepting the private messages of 72 million people was serving public interest. Oh no, wait, 22 people died in terror attacks in Germany last year. Clearly that justifies it...

 

[Weebarra]

I fear that this is the way many countries will go in their fight against terrorism but ordinary citizens are going to be affected too. Most of us are law abiding people but we still like to keep our private lives, just that..... private but if the authorities get their way then it really is a case of Big Brother watching over you and it definitely will be a nanny state. While i understand that governments want to stamp out terrorism. i doubt that this will achieve it.

 

[RoboMan]

I never understand why they want to remove the enctyption. Well, are they realy thinking terrorists use only internet and encrypted data? or they are unable to use other secure ways? That is simply stupid and have no logic whatsoever. the only reason i gues is to better control the mass and have an "eye" over anything we do online or in our life. Thats bullshit we have no privacy and it is getting worse every day. i hate how big cooperations/Agencys and Leaders want to see anything we do and have full control. Its like we are all salves without much knowing it.

Terrorism is the perfect excuse to do by force what they have been trying to do for ages.

Ever heard about "if you can't with it, buy it"? Well, welcome to 2017. If you can't buy it, make a law against it.

 

[Dean Winchestere]

Sounds like typical mass paranoia. Sad thing is, I am more afraid of the government then of terrorists at this stage.

 

[Winter Soldier]

They are dark moments for the world, but to make them so blinds are not only terrorists, but also politicians who, with their superficial and absurd reactions born of their inability, are causing a huge disaster.
And we look at them, while destroying what remains of our freedom.

 

[Entreri]

The NSA at least had open access to virtually all routers:

Your Router's Security Stinks: Here's How to Fix It

"Then, there's networking port 32764, which French security researcher Eloi Vanderbeken in 2013 discovered had been quietly left open on gateway routers sold by several major brands. Using port 32764, anyone on a local network — which includes a user's ISP — could take full administrative control of a router, and even perform a factory reset, without a password.

The port was closed on most affected devices following Vanderbeken's disclosures, but he later found that it could easily be reopened with a specially designed data packet that could be sent from an ISP.

"This is so obviously done by a spy agency, it's amazing," Horowitz said. "It was deliberate, no doubt about it.""

 

[Ink]

It's not a Nuke attack. Calm down. Geez.

 

[Urusen]

Those OTAN countries should stop making mess on Middle East and North Africa first.

 

[lab34]

Hello,
I think there are multiples motivations behind that.
- gov want to fight terrorism
- gov want to show they are fighting terrorism
- gov know that anti-terrorism measures help them fighting in other playgrounds (economic intelligence, drugs traffic, activism activities...)

But in a security point of view, a backdoor that exists for a government, exists for everybody.

 

[Freki123]

@lab34 Yeah i think its most for the "show" part for the mass.

The sad thing is they always want more and more data after each terror attack. But with the data they collect they are not able to prevent much.
The attack at the christmas fair with the truck. They know that the attacker was planning something for month. There are files from different german security agencys that he was planning bad stuff. And what happend? Every agency did nothing for month And if i read the papers right some even tempered with evidence and "lost" stuff. I got not trust in agencys working in such a way.

 

[omidomi]

Restricted users freedom by the slogan of "attack to terrorism" is just a shame "word" because the base idea of terrorism is restricted people from freedom,ok if government do this , they go happy....
I know German government is not that "Evil" and they want just protected their citizen,but listen to me if you want to "attack to terrorism" really, this way that you choose is not good...
we love Germany for its Freedom and Democracy if it gone the Karma of Germany will decrease and listed this nice Country to way of ....hope to Stop this project.

 

[Aleeyen]

Sometimes I think this terrorism and all that is the brainchild of these kind of politicians. Because of it they can sell their weapons, collect people's personal data illegally, restrict freedom of citizens and do many more things. If there was no terrorism what excuse would have they given.