full-disclosure - On PGP (was: Wiretap or Magic Lantern?)

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Message-ID: <04Apr8.090518cest.118272@fd.hif.hu>
From: adam at hif.hu (Szilveszter Adam)
Subject: On PGP (was: Wiretap or Magic Lantern?)

Hello,

Thanks Tamas, I really got a kick out of the article. Especially your 
last paragraph, which really underscores my previous point: no need to 
go against the crypto head-on (although doing it anyway and suceeding is 
certainly nice, even if you only find some unimportant info like the 
love letters of the female suspected terrorist, you can use it later 
carefully in small drips to pressure her during the interrogation phase, 
since she may assume that you know far more than she thought.) when you 
can zoom in on them through the "human angle". Any reasonable police 
officer knows how to do the latter, and this is why the saying "there is 
no perfect crime" goes around in those circles.

Of course, this does not mean, that the fetisization of technology does 
not happen in the forces. Especially, since quite often (and quite 
wrongly) people believe that just by cracking the files on this device 
they would get all the info that they need and that getting that info 
any other way is hard, so frustration sets in. People are after quick 
success, you know :-) This is why some idiotic "anti-terrorist" 
legislation primarily focuses on technology and misses the larger 
picture (nicely stamping out human rights while at it too) Of course, 
fear of the unknown also plays a role: modern technology often is one of 
the great unknowns to people. But the cure for this is understanding the 
technology, and what it can and what it cannot do. But this is no easy 
task :-) as we all know.

Regards:
Sz.