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Any encryption backdoor would do more harm than good. BlueLeaks is proof of that.

By demanding encryption backdoors, Politicians are not asking us to choose between security and privacy. They are asking us to choose no security.

2020-8-28 / First published: 2018-9-17
Politicians regularly demand that companies add encryption backdoors to their end-to-end encrypted email and cloud services to enable law enforcement to easier prosecute criminals. To the contrary, the recent leak of highly sensitive police documents, called BlueLeaks, demonstrates that we need better and more encryption, not less. By demanding to break encryption, Politicians are not asking us to choose between security and privacy. They are asking us to choose no security. This post explains why any encryption backdoor is - and will always be - a stupid idea.

Any encryption backdoor is a threat

The governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (also know as Five Eyes) have made it clear that they plan to force technology providers based in their countries to enable lawful access to users' encrypted communications via an encryption backdoor.

This comes as yet another demand to backdoor encryption in the ongoing 'Crypto War' where Politicians say that they need backdoors for law enforcement to do their job, and security experts argue that building an encryption backdoor is easy, but securing it is impossible.

Or, as Bruce Schneier puts it: "We're not being asked to choose between security and privacy. We're being asked to choose between less security and more security."

EARN IT - another attack on encryption

In 2020, Attorney General William Barr has made yet another attempt at destroying online security with his demands for encryption backdoors: the EARN IT bill. While EARN IT does not explicitly outlaw encryption, it says that tech companies must apply "best practices" to scan data before it is being uploaded.

As these "best practices" are then decided upon by a government commission led by Attorney General Barr, it becomes obvious that encryption is threatened through the backdoor.

In addition, three US Senators have now also introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act that aims at ending the use of "'warrant-proof' encrypted technology by terrorists and other bad actors to conceal illicit behavior".

In the US, the crypto-wars are ongoing to this day. Here is how you can fight the EARN IT bill.

What is an encryption backdoor?

An encryption backdoor is a universal key. This key is meant to be accessible only to the 'good' guys, for example law enforcement. But, first, there is no guarantee that the 'good' guys are the good guys, and second, there is always the risk that a third party gains access to the universal key.

Encryption keeps us safe from a wide range of threats

With their demand to backdoor encryption, Politicians want to defend us against one threat - criminals, including terrorists - while disregarding an entire range of threats that encryption protects us from: End-to-end encryption protects our data and communication against eavesdroppers such as hackers, foreign governments, and terrorists.

Without it, dissidents in China would not be able to communicate online without facing arrest. Journalists would not be able to securely communicate with whistleblowers, human rights activists and lots of NGOs would not be able to do their work in repressive countries, lawyers and doctors would not be able to confidentially communicate with their clients.

You would not be able to have a private conversation online with anyone.

Zach Weinersmith has made an awesome comic, showing what it would mean if the government had a universal key, such as an encryption backdoor:

Comic about encryption backdoors and what it means for your privacy

Encryption backdoor is by definition a vulnerability

It is impossible to build an encryption backdoor that only the 'good guys' can access. If the FBI can decrypt your emails or get access to your computer's hard drive, so can criminals, terrorists, and other governments.

Back in 2009, for instance, Chinese hackers breached a Google database through a backdoor meant to only provide access for the U.S. government. "In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access", explained securit expert Bruce Schneier.

This sensitive database contained years’ worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets.

Cryptography experts disapprove of backdoors for security reasons

Should governments be granted access to encrypted data via a backdoor, this, according to cryptography experts like Matthew Green and Bruce Schneier, would equate to mandating insecurity:


Building an encryption backdoor is easy - securing it is impossible

To shine some light on why an encryption backdoor would have such a devastating effect on the Internet, imagine the following:

If a tech company implemented a backdoor, they would need access to their users' private keys in order to being able to decrypt the data upon request. This would mean they had to store all private keys of all users in a highly secured vault, only accessible by highly trusted employees.

Whenever law enforcement issues a warrant for one of those keys, one highly trusted employee would have to open the vault, retrieve the required key, and transmit it - securely! - to the law enforcement agency.

Now, to make this picture a little more disturbing: For a big tech company, this would mean thousands of requests per day from thousands of different law enforcement agencies.

For any tech company, it would be impossible to protect this vault against incompetence and mistakes. In addition, if a tech company created such a vault where all private keys are stored, this would become a highly attractive platform for any malicious attacker on the Internet, even powerful state actors.

With data breaches around the world becoming more sophisticated, it is obvious that it will be impossible to defend this vault against deliberate attacks, and this is exactly why a private key must remain locally with the user and must never be stored on a central server.

BlueLeaks as a worst-case example

The recent BlueLeaks scandal has proven what it means if sensitive data is not secured adequately. Security expert Brian Krebs writes on his blog:

"Preliminary analysis of the data contained in this leak suggests that Netsential, a web services company used by multiple fusion centers, law enforcement, and other government agencies across the United States, was the source of the compromise," the NFCA wrote. "Netsential confirmed that this compromise was likely the result of a threat actor who leveraged a compromised Netsential customer user account and the web platform’s upload feature to introduce malicious content, allowing for the exfiltration of other Netsential customer data."

This massive leak of highly sensitive police documents that also contained ACH routing numbers, international bank account numbers (IBANs) as well as personally identifiable information and images of suspects was easily possible because attackers were able to upload malware via an abused user account. This was the weak link: Login data of a user was enough to then retrieve troves of data because this data was not encrypted.

While it is up for debate whether it is a good or a bad thing that this highly sensitive data from the police was leaked, it is unquestionable that the BlueLeaks attack would not have been successful had the data been encrypted end-to-end.

This shows why encryption backdoors are so dangerous: If an abused employee account - or an employee himself - can become the weak link who has access to the general decryption key, all data is at risk of falling into the wrong hands.

A private conversation would only be possible offline

When Politicians ask for backdoor access to online communication, they also ignore that total surveillance was never an option in the offline world: It is not illegal to lock ones door. It is not illegal to whisper. It is not illegal to walk out of sight of a CCTV camera.

Of course, it is a hassle to law enforcement that some encryption can't be broken, just like it is a hassle to law enforcement that we don't have the telescreens from the dystopian novel '1984' installed in our bedrooms.

1984 wasn't a how-to guide

This is something law enforcement have to put up with in order for all of us to enjoy the freedom of a democracy, instead of living in a surveillance state.

If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy

Once and for all, we have to understand that outlawing encryption in online services, that general surveillance will not help to better prosecute criminals. Instead, criminals will build their own encrypted tools, use burner phones and other techniques, making it even harder for law enforcement to keep track.

Phil Zimmermann's prominent quote still stands: "If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy."

An encryption backdoor is such a severe security risk for all of us, we must never allow it.

Open source email, free from backdoors

For that reason, we have published all Tutanota clients as open source enabling tech-savvy people to verify that we are doing what we promise: Protecting every private email with built-in end-to-end encryption, guaranteed free from any encryption backdoor.

We have made it our mission to stop mass surveillance with encryption. And we welcome everyone to join.

Get your own secure mail account now.

Quote: Every time you use encryption, you are protecting someone who needs to use it to stay alive.