
Show HN: Crypto Crumple Zones: Enabling Limited Access Without Mass Surveillance [pdf] - cvwright
https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~cvwright/papers/crumplezones.pdf
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cvwright
With the topic of "exceptional access" in the news again, I thought HN might
be interested in this work that we did a couple of years ago.

The idea is, you can have my decryption key as long as you're willing to spend
a million dollars to get it. Not willing to spend the money? Then it must not
be so important after all.

NOTE: We are NOT hoping to get something like this deployed. This is a
research project. Just trying to get the ball rolling on finding a way to
satisfy government demands while maintaining as much security as possible,
with as strong protections as we can come up with to limit misuse. I'm afraid
that, sooner or later, we're going to need it.

~~~
salawat
That would likely be a non-starter. The Government wouldn't like it, because
you can set your price point arbitrarily, thereby maintaining the possibility
to refuse disclosure. Plus, nothing stops you from changing out your key.

Besides which, if you know it, and they need you to reveal it to them, they
are screwed anyway by the Fifth. Although, makes a hell of a nice windfall for
the falsely accused.

The fact is, there is no shortage of Amendments you'd have to throw out to
make this kind of exceptional access regime the only legal option. 1st, 2nd,
5th...

We need to get over it. Encrypted data might as well be synonymous with your
own thoughts in terms of how inaccessible they are to law enforcement, and
that's just how it's got to be.

Land of the free, home of the brave; eternal vigilance is the price of
Liberty.

Safety is not guaranteed, and investigation is _hard_. This is simply how life
has to be for a country that truly values Liberty for it's citizens.

~~~
cvwright
I hope you are right.

