OT: Tuesday Globe -- Ottawa and Wiretap access

[Robert Brockway]

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005, Jamon Camisso wrote:

> Did anyone else see this article on proposed wiretapping abilities?
> 
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051011.wxaccess11/BNStory/National/
> 
> I don't take issue with the actual potential for invasion of privacy, 
> since I think it is somewhat inevitable. For anyone who isn't involved 
> in illegal activities there should be no problems. Regardless (and I 

This is only true if we start from the premise that the government will 
only ever use wiretapping to investigate those reasonably suspected of 
involvement in crimes.  History shows that wiretapping has been used far 
more widely than this, even in democracies.  There is always the fear of 
the "slipper slope" too.

> Why must the proposals be confidential? If it is a government initiative,

It shouldn't be.

> shouldn't the proposals be made public, what with the governemnt being a
> public body and all? Claiming that making such proposals public knowledge
> would give the baddies the jump on new wiretapping technologies is silly in
> light of existing encryption and anonymizing tools already available.
> 
> Thoughts?

It is an application of "security through obscurity".  This is a flawed 
approach to security but one which many erroneously cling to.

Bringing this closer to home, many of the criticisms laid on OSS by those 
who do not understand it well[1] often boil down to a belief that security 
through obscurity is a good thing.

[1] Just quiz then on licencing to establish this.

Rob

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