Wendy Grossman's (@wendyg -- follow her) net.wars this week is excellent as usual:
https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/

Its trigger is the UK government's rather #stupid #demand that #Apple provide access to all of its users end-to-end #encrypted files. And it talks more generally about the problems with governments demanding back doors in encryption provided to the public, which is hugely counter-productive.

But maybe I just like it because it agrees with what I've said here a number of times:

Encryption is math.

There is no such thing as math that "the good guys" can do, but which "the bad guys" can't.

Anyone who tells you different [1] is lying.

Use strong encryption for everything, for the same reason you send your routine correspondence in envelopes rather than on the back of a postcard.

[1] Such as politicians who never got entry-level algebra telling you that encryption that only the government can break is possible, you just have to NERD HARDER.

#NetWars #BackDoor #encryption #NerdHarder #math #algebra #politician

“The teenagers who read Foucault are in pitched battle with the teenagers who read Rand, whilst the teenagers who read Tolkien, Vonnegut or Adams watch, agog at the technical misapprehension…”

<trying to explain the world of online regulation to someone>

#nerdHarder

When ‘Nerd Harder’ meets International Standards: @profmusgrave tells us how ISO “screwed the pooch” with ISO8601

A story in six acts, and it somehow encapsulates every single one of the “I am a politician and the nerds are clearly doing it the wrong way” debates of the last 20 years:

https://alecmuffett.com/article/109928

#nerdHarder