Re: Fwd: Taming the Web - Can the Internet be controlled?

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Fri Aug 31 2001 - 02:28:18 MDT


Eugene Leitl wrote:
>
> On Fri, 31 Aug 2001, Chen Yixiong, Eric wrote:
>
> > Aug. 17 - ?Information wants to be free.? ?The Internet can?t be
> > controlled.? We?ve heard it so often that we sometimes take for
> > granted that it?s true. But the Internet can be controlled, and those
> > who argue otherwise are hastening the day when it will be controlled
> > too much, by the wrong people, and for the wrong reasons.
>
> The Internet is just a physical layer. To remain useful, it must offer
> services. Online commerce relies on safe information transport. Safe
> information transport relies on strong cryptography. Using existing
> cryptographic channels and steganographic packaging of said cryptographic
> channels over multimedia links in peer to peer networks makes centralized
> control largely illusory. You can't block if there's no recognizable
> location, and you can't filter if there's no recognizable content.

I am no expert but I have heard it claimed that steganography
gives really illusory additional protection against pros (e.g.
Feds) as they have good tools for finding such hidden
information flows.

On most forms of encryption the simplest way to circumvent,
particularly if you are a spook, is to plant software on the
user system that finds any keys and so on and send them along to
you.

All of that said, only a fool would not at least try for better
security.

- samantha



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