[AusNOG] Consensus from the IETF 88 Technical Plenary - Internet hardening

[Karl Auer]

On Fri, 2013-11-08 at 08:56 +0000, Dobbins, Roland wrote:
> On Nov 8, 2013, at 3:30 PM, Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au> wrote:
> > About the only arguments against that I can readily bring to mind are performance and efficiency (and maybe somewhat harder troubleshooting,
> > though that's really a tools issue for legitimate participants). 
> 
> And security - i.e., detection/classification/traceback.

Hm. Seems to me that is the point of encryption! We encrypt to prevent
exactly those things (depending on what you mean by traceback). To
people with the keys, an encrypted channel is accessible; to all others,
tough luck. Don't see the problem there...

> No amount of technology will save us from that, as those of us who
> remember the crypto wars of the 1990s know, given that all this stuff
> is simply an end-run around those of us who opposed key escrow.

Funny, I remember the crypto wars being won by the Forces of Good, and
the fact that we are having this discussion is the proof of it. Oddly I
can't remember whether I was for or against key escrow at the time :-)
Probably against it, just because of the honeypot factor if nothing
else. Given that post Snowden *no-one* will believe that any keys held
in escrow by anyone are not being given "legally" to the Axis of
Eyeballs, I think the key-escrow landscape is very different these days,
and the idea stands even less chance now than it did then.

> And mark my words - if encryption-by-default starts to gain traction, key escrow will be back

Oh, come on. Nobody is marking our words, are they? Oh, wait...

Regards, K.

PS: Is this off-topic yet?

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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