0906, 2024

DeepSec 2024 Press Release: State Attacks on Information Security continue unabated. End-to-end Encryption remains an important and threatened Component of Security.

Sanna/ June 9, 2024/ Press/ 0 comments

The introduction of strong encryption has repeatedly led to disputes with authorities and the government in the past. Whether it’s mobile networks, email systems, messengers or the World Wide Web, every iteration of the technical protocols requires backdoors that jeopardise the entire communications infrastructure. The DeepSec conference warns against opening the door to espionage. Secure or insecure, that is the Question Encryption inevitably has to do with mathematics, and the algorithms used in encryption technologies almost always originate from mathematical research. There are ready-made and well-tested components for IT infrastructures that are freely available. The critical point in securing communication is always to prevent messages from being intercepted. The only way to do this is with end-to-end encryption (EE2E). The keys involved remain exclusively with the sender and recipient. All parties involved in forwarding

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2012, 2022

Translated Article: US ‘Chat Control’ Now with Exception for E2E Encryption

Sanna/ December 20, 2022/ Stories

US-„Chatkontrolle“ nun mit Ausnahme für E2E-Verschlüsselung by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at [This is the second summary article describing the concerted attack on IT security around the globe. Erich has researched the current state of affairs. It is of interest that the US lawmakers have understood the importance of ent-to-end-encryption, while their UK and EU counterparts have not.] The US regulation on child protection provides for a right of refusal in search warrants for E2E providers, as they do not have access to the requested data. The regulations planned in the EU and UK, on the other hand, require WhatsApp and others to install backdoors. In the British House of Commons, the surveillance bill “Online Safety Bill” is getting out of hand. After incorporating the amendments from the beginning of the week, the British “chat control” with

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1307, 2022

Translated Article: New EU Regulation makes securely encrypted Chats illegal

Sanna/ July 13, 2022/ Stories

Neue EU-Regulierung macht sicher verschlüsselte Chats illegal by Erich Moechel for fm4.orf.at [This article has been sitting in our translation queue for a while. We have translated the content, because Erich monitors the development of the war against encryption for many decades and has always deep insights into the processes behind the scenes.] The word “encryption” is hardly mentioned directly in the Commission’s draft, which aims to make end-to-end encryption illegal in general. Series, Part 1. The EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson’s Regulation on Combating Child Abuse on the Internet, which was presented on Wednesday, caused incredulous amazement in the professional world. “This will be the most sophisticated system of mass surveillance ever set up outside of Russia or China,” prominent cryptographer Matthew Green wrote in a first reaction on Twitter. Securely encrypted chats are de

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3103, 2021

Translated Article: EU-US Summit Against Secure Encryption

Sanna/ March 31, 2021/ Legal, Stories

Gipfel EU-USA gegen sichere Verschlüsselung by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at The agenda of the virtual meeting at a high-ranking official level in two weeks features pretty much all data protection-related topics that are currently controversial in Europe. Joe Biden’s appearance before the EU Council of Ministers will be followed by a two-day video conference on April 14th at the top level of officials in the field of justice and homeland security between the EU and the USA. Practically all currently controversial issues around data protection are on the agenda, from cross-border data access for law enforcement officers to joint action against secure encryption. This is also the case with the “fight against child abuse”, which is once again being instrumentalized for these general surveillance projects. Ylyva Johansson, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs and Justice, commissioned a

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3103, 2021

All your Content are belong to Us – how the Crypto Wars continue

René Pfeiffer/ March 31, 2021/ Discussion, High Entropy, Internet, Legal

Encryption is one of our favourite topics. This blog and our events feature discussions, tools, and content regarding cryptography. The first DeepSec conference in 2007 even had a presentation about a practical attack on GSM’s A5/1 algorithm. Subsequent conferences followed up on this, for example, the state of affairs of mobile network security in 2010. We use encryption and high levels of privacy in our own communication. Certain published documents emphasize the importance of using uncompromised and modern encryption algorithms. In the meantime, users have moved to messengers using TCP/IP on top of the mobile network transmissions. This enables full end-to-end encryption and privacy. The problems are still the same as in the 1990s. Enter the continuation of the Crypto Wars. On 23 March the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) Rostock in Germany argued that

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3012, 2020

Translated Article: EU Decryption Plans apparently “Done Deal”

Sanna/ December 30, 2020/ Stories

EU-Entschlüsselungspläne offenbar „beschlossene Sache“ by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at Even without an official mandate from the Council for such a regulation, the Commission has already started to anchor a decryption requirement in other regulation projects. Chronicle of the second Cyberwars from 2014 to today, Part II. You can find part one here. The controversial resolution of the Council of Ministers against secure encryption was anchored in the new draft guidelines for “high-class cyber security” of December 16. Since resolutions are not binding per se, this indicates a “Fait Accompli”, an informally already decided matter. From data retention (until 2006) to the currently adopted regulation against online terrorist propaganda (start in 2016) , all major EU surveillance projects have started in this way. So much more than the public information available so far should have already

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2912, 2020

Translated Article: EU Directive for “High-Class Cybersecurity” with Duplicate Keys

Sanna/ December 29, 2020/ Conference, Security, Stories

EU-Richtlinie für „hochklassige Cybersicherheit“ mit Nachschlüsseln by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at. The key message of the Council of Ministers’ resolution against secure encryption has already arrived in a first draft directive. For this reason here’s a historical outline of the new Crypto Wars since 2014. The resolution of the EU Council of Ministers against secure encryption, which resulted in so much criticism, has already appeared in a first draft directive. A corresponding passage can be found in the new draft directive on “Measures for high-quality cybersecurity in the Union”. The date of December 16 of the document shows that it was already drawn up before the Council resolution was passed (on December 19). Here, too, it is claimed that secure end-to-end encryption remains intact if duplicate keys are generated for third parties. Meanwhile the EU

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0911, 2020

Translated Article: The Terrorist Attack is followed by an EU Ban on Encryption

Sanna/ November 9, 2020/ Conference

Auf den Terroranschlag folgt EU-Verschlüsselungsverbot by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at In the EU Council of Ministers, a resolution was made ready within five days, obliging platform operators such as WhatsApp, Signal and Co to create master keys for monitoring E2E-encrypted chats and messages. The terrorist attack in Vienna is used in the EU Council of Ministers to enforce a ban on secure encryption for services such as WhatsApp, Signal and many others in a fast track procedure. This emerges from an internal document dated November 6th from the German Presidency to the delegations of the member states in the Council, which ORF.at has received. This should now be understood as the “further steps against terrorism” that French President Emmanuel Macron wants to discuss with Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) in a video conference at

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2207, 2020

Press Release: Digital Infrastructure should integrate Malware

Sanna/ July 22, 2020/ Conference, Press, Security

The German government wants to force Internet providers to install malicious software and intercept network traffic. Since the 1990s, there has been a constant struggle between authorities and security experts. One side wants to make digital infrastructure, especially data transport and communication, as secure as possible for business and society. The other side constantly strives for back doors to intercept data and correspondence. The fight for access to secure data transmissions, originally titled “Crypto Wars” is entering the next round. The German federal government has created a draft law that is intended to legally force Internet providers and companies with related activities to distribute malware and manipulate network traffic. In future, the installation of apps on smartphones or automatic software updates can compromise computer systems. This destroys the basis of digitalisation – with far-reaching

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2107, 2020

Translated Article: EU Council of Ministers discusses Back Doors in Encryption again

Sanna/ July 21, 2020/ Security, Stories

EU-Ministerrat diskutiert wieder Hintertüren in Verschlüsselung by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at Gilles de Kerchove, EU’s anti-terror coordinator, is once again working against secure encryption per se. Since these new demands by law enforcement officials on the EU Council of Ministers are nowhere openly accessible, this confidential Council document is published in full by FM4. The corona virus pandemic has led to a surge in teleworking worldwide. Instead of behind firewalls in secure corporate networks, millions of employees worldwide work from insecure home offices. The only real protection is the end-to-end encryption (E2E) of the data traffic. In the middle of this scenario, the “Five Eyes” secret service alliance is starting the next phase of its global campaign against secure encryption. Again, police law enforcement is used as a vehicle. After the United States, the European protagonist

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1707, 2020

Translated Article: US bill against Secure Encryption of Chats

Sanna/ July 17, 2020/ Internet, Security, Stories

US-Gesetzesentwurf gegen sichere Verschlüsselung von Chats by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at A new US law on “Access by law enforcement officers to encrypted data” is intended to force chat providers such as Signal or WhatsApp to incorporate back doors into their security architectures. In the United States, a bill is on its way to the Senate that has stunned the IT industry. The planned law on “Access by law enforcement officers to encrypted data” turns upside down all the rules that have been in force on the WWW for 25 years. Encrypted chats and data backup for a wide audience should therefore only be offered if the provider has duplicate keys. That would be the end of end-to-end encryption (E2E) from Signal, WhatsApp and others. The same applies to hardware manufacturers who have to provide access

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