Software — Are You OK with Backdoors?
FBI Director James Comey argued for law enforcement “backdoors” into encrypted communication applications. President Obama recently asked for technology companies to help give the government access to communications over messaging applications and social media. Political leaders have increasingly been calling on tech companies to give law enforcement encryption backdoors in the wake of recent terror attacks in Paris and California.
Director Comey states that “In May, when two terrorists attempted to kill a whole lot of people in Garland, Texas, and were stopped by the action of great local law enforcement,” he said. “That morning, before one of those terrorists left to try to commit mass murder, he exchanged 109 messages with an overseas terrorist. We have no idea what he said because those messages were encrypted. That is a big problem.”
Attacking With Zeros and Ones
What has been called cyberterrorism involves the use of modern technology, such as computers. One weapon is the computer virus, which eats data or freezes up systems. There are also “logic bombs” that fool computers into trying to do
something they can’t, thereby forcing them to malfunction. As the economy and the security of nations increasingly depend on information networks, many feel that the public is more open to such terrorist attacks. And while most armies have systems to keep their communications up even during a nuclear war, civilian systems — power supplies, transportation, and financial markets — may be more vulnerable to sabotage.
Not long ago, if a terrorist wanted to cause a blackout in, let’s say, Berlin, he might have sought a job as a utility worker so that he could sabotage the electrical system. But now, some say, it might be possible for a trained computer hacker to darken the city from the comfort of his home in a remote village halfway around the world.
Not long ago a hacker from Sweden invaded a computer system in Florida and put an emergency-service system out of commission for an hour, impeding the responses of police, fire, and ambulance services. “In essence we’ve created a global village without a police department,” observed Frank J. Cilluffo, director of the Information Warfare Task Force of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). And Robert Kupperman, senior adviser to CSIS, stated in 1997 that if terrorists choose to use high-tech methods, “no government agency currently exists to cope with the repercussions of their attack.”
The Battle for Secrecy — You Are Involved!
Some analysts believe that computer terrorists have the technological tools
available to outwit any protection devices that security forces come up with. The ability to encrypt communications. UNTIL recent times, secret codes usually involved governments, ambassadors, spies, and the military. But not anymore. With the advent of computers and the Internet, valuable data are often kept secret by a number of elements, including passwords, which are authenticated every time users access their records. Indeed, never before has secrecy played such a big role in everyday life. In today’s digital world, banking, money transfers, and payments — as well as medical, corporate, and government records — are secured by means of complex encryptions. The ciphertext, in turn, is read by those who have the necessary decryption key to restore the data to its original form. Here is where things get really interesting.
Backdoors gained notoriety in 2013 when NSA documents leaked to the media by whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed a decades-long effort by the spy agency, in partnership with Britain’s GCHQ, to pressure companies into installing backdoors in their products. They particularly focused pressure on the makers of encryption systems. These secret backdoors allow the intelligence agencies to circumvent or undermine security protections and surreptitiously access systems and data. Government officials continue to pressure the tech sector to “backdoor” their hardware/software so they can eavesdrop on suspected miscreants.
Is it reasonable to conclude that governments will not force tech to allow them in? Probably not. Welcome to the new normal.
