johannes wrote:
>
> Cork Soaker wrote:
>> "peterwn" wrote in message
>> news:b60f1f61-c19b-4cfd-9c65-4f0ddca937a7@h1g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
>> : On May 17, 10:10 am, "Cork Soaker"
>> : wrote:
>> : > http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
>> : >
>> : > "LEGAL WARNING: Use of PuTTY, PSCP, PSFTP and Plink is illegal in
>> countries
>> : > where encryption is outlawed. I believe it is legal to use PuTTY, PSCP,
>> : > PSFTP and Plink in England and Wales and in many other countries, but I
>> am
>> : > not a lawyer and so if in doubt you should seek legal advice before
>> : > downloading it."
>> : >
>> : > This can't be correct can it? Colleges and universities offer SSH
>> access
>> : > for their students...
>> :
>> : The authorities seem to have given up on restricting encryption
>> : methods. In any event, the average computer user is virtually an
>> : unwitting party to strong encryption systems when doing internet
>> : banking etc, this being essential for security reasons. The French I
>> : think has laws covering allowable strength of encryption systems, with
>> : MS Office sold in France having a dumbed down encryption algorithm.
>> :
>> : The legal requirement is to yield the keys on demand with serious
>> : criminal penalties for failing to do so (in any case higher courts
>> : have probably always been able to ask for this as part of their
>> : inherent jurisdiction).
>>
>> Thanks for the reply.
>>
>> I thought I heard something about this years ago, but as you say, they seem
>> to have given up.
>>
>> I can *maybe* understand why the authorities would need access to certain
>> encrypted streams, although I personally think they have no bloody right and
>> should FOAD (but I won't get into that discussion).
>>
>> With the exception of giving law enforcement the encryption keys, it
>> certainly is not in their interest for people to be using weak encryption,
>> like you said about internet banking, the stronger the encryption, the
>> better it is for everyone!
>
> I probably use encryption for internet transaction, but I have no idea of the
> keys or where to find them. BTW I heard that one of the reason for the 42
> days detention without charge was that terrorists might hide messages in DVD
> movies. Hence officers have to watch through all the movies found on a PC.
well lest just hope a 'terrorist' doesn't have a huge collection of blue
ray type discs full of low res clips in a range of formats.. i pity them
having to trawl through all that.
or even say a couple of 1TB drives, which cost not a huge amount these
days. its almost who needs encryption, just *finding* a small file or
part thereof in that lot would be a challenge, even if its not hidden. |