Italian Phone Taps Spur Encryption Use 176
manekineko2 writes "This article in the NYTimes discusses how a recent rash of high-profile mobile phone taps in Italy is spurring a rush toward software-encrypted phone conversations. Private conversations have been tapped and subsequently leaked to the media and have resulted in disclosures of sensitive takeover discussions, revelations regarding game-fixing in soccer, and the arrest of a prince on charges of providing prostitutes and illegal slot machines. An Italian investigative reporter stated that no one would ever discuss sensitive information on the phone now. As a result, encryption software for mobile phones has moved from the government and military worlds into the mainstream. Are GSM phones in the US ripe for a similar explosion in the use of freely available wiretapping technology, and could this finally be the impetus to for widespread use of software-encrypted communications?"
Not Gonna Happen in US (Score:5, Insightful)
1. The government would simply make it illegal (don't want to give the terrorists any new tools).
2. The government would require a backdoor be built in by manufacturers, defeating the purpose.
Re:Your parent is talking about the issue of trust (Score:4, Insightful)
A CA is not in central control over encryption. They are only in control of authenticating keys. The only way they can subvert the encryption process is to issue matching (in details, but not in keys) certificates to you and the man in the middle. If they were to do this, it would be detected quickly, and their reputation as a trusted CA would suffer.
Re:Italy & US (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, of course. Until you realize, at the end of the conversation, that the NSA's already bugged the room you're talking in.
Are the solutions open source (Score:3, Insightful)
If not, how do we know that it doesn't have a back-door?
And if it does indeed have a back-door, how can people ever be sure that the "wrong" people (definition of "wrong" depending on the user) will not intercept and decode the communications using said back-door?
In this world of powerfull Intelligence Agencies, any kind of communications security software/hardware which is not at the very least peer-reviewed is bound to have some sort of backdoor.
What about Skype? (Score:2, Insightful)
An another point, some of the posts here seem to be missing the point - the Italian wiretaps involved not just the state, but also illegal snooping done by powerful individuals, corporations and also the state phone company. It's not just the mobiles that were tapped, but land lines too. No point in having an encrypted GSM if you then use it to call a bugged land line...
Re:Worried now? (Score:3, Insightful)
As low as it may be, there still is some expectation of privacy on the phone (that's why wiretapping is regulated by a law): unfortunately even that low barrier has been broken in a quite spectacular way, so people now are outraged and asking for end-to-end encrypted phones, since they can't trust the phone company (the tapping apparently was done by insiders at the phone company...).