Encryption won’t work if it has a back door only the ‘good guys’ have keys to | Technology | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/01/encryption-wont-work-if-it-has-a-back-door-only-the-good-guys-have-keys-to-

This article from few years back is still relevant, because this same stupid idea becomes re-introduced as proposed “solution” in different countries again and again.
It’s impossible to overstate how bonkers the idea of sabotaging cryptography is. Use deliberately compromised cryptography, that has a back door that only the “good guys” are supposed to have the keys to, and you have effectively no security. There are two reasons why this is so.

First, there is the question of whether encryption can be made secure while still maintaining a “master key” for the authorities’ use.

The second problem with back doors: the security services are really bad at overseeing their own behaviour.

If you want a preview of what a back door looks like, just look at the US Transportation Security Administration’s “master keys” for the locks on our luggage. Nowadays many people can 3D print TSA keys using designs leaked on-line.
“It’s not OK not to understand the internet anymore.” That goes double for cryptography: any politician caught spouting off about back doors is unfit for office.

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