[Cryptography] Third amendment crypto defenses

Phillip Hallam-Baker phill at hallambaker.com
Fri Nov 7 14:46:36 EST 2014

prescribed by law.

One of the main differences between GCHQ and the NSA is that GCHQ
reports to the foreign office while the NSA is a part of the military.
This has profound implications for the way that the NSA works. It is
also an issue that might well be fixable under the next

The problem with the NSA at present is that it puts far too much power
in the hands of the military. The CIA was under the remit of the
Secretary of State before it was put under the DNI because it is a bad
idea to have a bunch of spooks advising third world generals on how to
enact a coup d'etat to be reporting to your own generals.

The NSA has been promoting its notion of 'cyberwarriors' performing
attacks. They have also been performing work for the FBI which lacks
the necessary skills to intercept many modern communications. Looking
at the third amendment, I think there is a reasonable interpretation
which would find that the military should not have anything to do with
such activities.

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