Dumbass quote of the day: Australian PM vs. encryption

Australia PM Malcolm Turnbull

Governments and law enforcement agencies hate encryption. After all, it’s the greatest impediment to their ability to spy on everyone, everywhere, at any moment, which they will quickly assure you is to protect national security, no matter how flimsy that excuse really is. But since outlawing it outright would be too unpopular, they instead want to force encryption companies to punch holes into their software – but special holes, ones that only the good guys can use to investigate crimes. And when every security expert alive tells them it can’t be done without also allowing adversaries to use those same weaknesses, they’re just told to shut up and try harder.

This contempt for strong crypto in the hands of the masses is epitomized in Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who apparently thinks his government is more powerful than the basic laws of reality:

Regardless of what the laws of mathematics state around breaking into end-to-end encryption, the Australian government is determined to bring in laws that go against them, with the Prime Minister of Australia telling ZDNet that the laws produced in Canberra are able to trump the laws of mathematics

"The laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that," he said on Friday. "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia."

One should wonder why they bother teaching Australian children mathematics in school, then. Does Turnbull also believe that if he wants it really hard, he can negate the law of gravity and fly?

But there’s more: He also doesn’t appear to understand what he’s demanding:

In recent weeks, as Australia has ramped up its rhetoric around encryption, Turnbull has repeatedly stated the country is not interested in backdoors.

Under questioning from journalists, Turnbull gave his definition of a backdoor.

"A back door is typically a flaw in a software program that perhaps the -- you know, the developer of the software program is not aware of and that somebody who knows about it can exploit," he said. "And, you know, if there are flaws in software programs, obviously, that's why you get updates on your phone and your computer all the time."

"So we're not talking about that. We're talking about lawful access."

In crypto-speak, a backdoor is any vulnerability, whether accidental or deliberate, that allows someone to break or bypass encryption and access the protected data without the proper authentication (such as a password). A legally compelled weakness in the encryption that allows “lawful access” is still very much a backdoor. It’s hard to say whether Turnbull was being disingenuous or whether he’s that ignorant. Both seem equally likely.

You also have to marvel at his reasoning here:

"I'm not a cryptographer, but what we are seeking to do is to secure their assistance," Turnbull said. "They have to face up to their responsibility. They can't just, you know, wash their hands of it and say it's got nothing to do with them."

"I am sure they know morally they should. Morally they should."

“They”, meaning experts (including some government cybersecurity agencies), almost universally agree that backdoors are a terrible idea that will only weaken national security. Turnbull’s response is to insinuate they’re just being lazy or irresponsible and that they should break the technology that keeps private data safe anyway … for moral reasons.

I have a law proposal of my own: Politicians who haven’t completed at least one computer science course should be barred from ever speaking about encryption and the supposed benefits of drilling holes into it.

(via Techdirt)