Category Archives: Cryptography

New Certificate for Discourse.net

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

In the unlikely event you care, be aware that I have just installed a new digital certificate for discourse.net:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

If your browser popped up a warning about the site’s cert changing, this is the reason. If it didn’t, well that just shows you how far we have to go in getting security to work well online.

The cert is issued by Let’s Encrypt, and replaces one I had to pay for.

Posted in Cryptography, Discourse.net | Comments Off on New Certificate for Discourse.net

My New Paper May Make Some of My Friends Angry

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Building Privacy into the Infrastructure: Towards a New Identity Management Architecture comes to what I fear some of my friends in the privacy community will find to be an unacceptable conclusion.

I’ll be presenting it at the Privacy Law Scholars Conference in Washington next week. Hopefully, since many attendees are in fact friends, they won’t bring brickbats.

Posted in Cryptography, Econ & Money, Law: Internet Law, Law: Privacy, Surveillance, Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on My New Paper May Make Some of My Friends Angry

Clipper Chip on Ebay

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

A guy is selling a T TSD 3600 Pair Clipper Chip Version New in Box Unused on E-Bay.

I have a birthday coming up, but the asking price is $250, which is just a bit too expensive. And I imagine the price will go up. Plus it sounds like they’d be hard to use, too.

Spotted via Scheier.

(Why do I care? The Metaphor is the Key: Cryptography, the Clipper Chip and the Constitution, 143 U. Penn. L. Rev. 709 (1995) and It Came From Planet Clipper, 1996 U. Chi. L. Forum 15.)

Posted in Cryptography | Comments Off on Clipper Chip on Ebay

Yahoo Does Apple v FBI

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Yahoo! Politics has me on Apple and the slippery slope problem of government claiming powers to draf needed helpers under the All Writs Act.

Posted in Cryptography, Law: Constitutional Law, The Media | Comments Off on Yahoo Does Apple v FBI

Cory Nails It

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

A brief history of the surveillance debate:

2012: "Mass surveillance is fine — if it wasn’t, you’d see major corporations trying to court new business by building in crypto tools that kept out the surveillance agencies. The fact that they’re not doing this tells you that surveillance opponents are an out-of-touch, paranoid minority."

2016: "Mass surveillance is necessary — when companies use crypto tools as ‘marketing ploys,’ they’re getting in the way of something we all agree is proportionate and legitimate!"

Posted in Cryptography, Surveillance | Comments Off on Cory Nails It

On the Apple v FBI Case

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Talking HeadThe government’s attempt to get Apple to build a bespoke operating system so they can brute force access to an iPhone without it erasing its data has led the media to some of us who were in the first round of the crypto wars. Today was my turn. A few seconds on CBS in the Morning, ink in a nice explainer by Steve Lohr in the New York Times. I also spoke to the LA Times and the Wall St. Journal, but I haven’t seen what if anything they made of it.

I presume they found me because I wrote the first US legal article on law and encryption: The Metaphor is the Key: Cryptography, the Clipper Chip and the Constitution. There’s also a shorter sequel that some find easier to read, It Came From Planet Clipper.

The Apple case potentially raises at least these major legal issues:

  1. To what extent the government can use the All Writs Act to compel people unrelated to a case to provide unwilling technical support–here, Apple says, 12-40 man-weeks of expert engineering–to the government’s efforts to disable a security system in order to effectuate a search warrant or similar court order;
  2. Whether ordering a firm to write code (here, a bespoke phone OS), is a form of compelled speech violating the First Amendment
  3. Whether ordering a firm to digitally sign that code (or anything else) is an impermissible form of compelled speech
  4. Whether if a court can issue this order requiring assistance to disable a security system without violating the Constitutions, it follows that Congress could also legislate to forbid people from building strong security systems that the government cannot break into unassisted — and, most critically, whether that would mean the government could forbid the deployment of strong cryptographic tools without back doors. (This last issue was the main subject of the two articles I linked to above. It’s not a simple question.)

Although the Apple issue likely will be decided on non-constitutional grounds, the parties are making a record on the constitutional issues with an eye to a set of appeals that could go as far as the Supreme Court. The issues are important and interesting, so the media is right to treat this as a big deal.

Posted in Cryptography, Law: Constitutional Law, Law: Criminal Law, Law: Privacy, The Media | 1 Comment