"Secure Communication"
Sept. 24, 2001
George Orwell is often referenced with respect to his classic novels, "1984" and "Animal Farm." The media loves to pull up Orwellian phrases such as "Big Brother" and "...some are more equal than others." However, his essay "Politics and the English Language" is often even more relevant to current affairs. For example, ^H^H^H^H^H
Well, I was going to write about how I wasn't going to use the word "cryptography" or "encryption" anymore, but instead "communication security" and "secured communications." People don't like associating places full of dead bodies with computers, but everyone loves security!
However, while I was heading over to /. for a relevant link to make my point, I discovered a new bill in the works - one that definitely appears to be capable of passing in this new hysterical political environment.
From what I gather, the law will reclassify as terrorism a variety of computer crimes. (a side issue: how is a crime committed with a computer different than the same crime committed without that tool?) For the most part, the bill simply makes the penalties for many computer crimes much harsher - minimum 25 years, maximum life in prison. However, there are some other effects because the bill adds penalties for those who advise, harbor, or aid computer criminals. Does that make it a crime to publish security holes in computer systems? Its quite possible that many security professionals unwittingly advise criminals on a daily basis, since they often publish their information to the public.
I have no idea how this bill would be enforced, but that just makes me more worried. The government is completely over-reacting. There is little evidence that terrorists are involved in any kind of computer crime or even high-level encryption, but it seems that the FBI, CIA, NSA bunch is willing to take this opportunity to take away all the security we have against them in exchange for "protecting" us from the terrorists. The fact remains: there is nothing in this bill which could have prevented the attacks of Sept. 11 from happening.
Ugh. That was such a rambling bunch of nonsense. Can't seem to make my thoughts lucid. It seems I'll have to wait until I cool down before writing again.