It just keeps on getting better and better. I have always heard that the UN is relatively clueless and passes some ridiculous resolutions but now their Telecommunications Chief decided to comment on the whole BlackBerry encryption issue going on in India and the middle east. That wouldn’t be a bad thing if he didn’t offer such an idiotic opinion.
According to the AP, Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union, said that RIM should give law enforcement agencies around the world access to its customers data. According to him these lawful agencies need to access this data to fight terrorism. He told the AP:
Those are genuine requests. There is a need for cooperation between governments and the private sector on security issues.
I just don’t get these kinds of requests. Since the release of PGP and other encryption technologies governments have been forced to accept that there is data they will not be able to access. There are no two ways about it. You can pick up hundreds of solutions that are totally free online to communicate with an encryption strength that is un-crack-able currently.
Maybe Toure should be concerned about these “genuine requests” and ask Cisco to stop selling VPN or firewall software? Or ask Microsoft to stop including VPN and other encryption options in Windows? Or block every website that lets you download encryption programs like OpenSSH, TrueCrypt, GnuPG, PGP, … the list goes on and on.
I wonder how the UN would feel if they suddenly made all UN and NATO communication like email have an encryption backdoor? Then they could offer the solution to Iran because they have a “genuine interest” in knowing what sanctions will be placed on them next. What do you think?
DavidB ( View Profile) - Posts: