News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by huuu on Friday March 11, 2016 @05:31AM (#11265781)
People who can enter a back door:

  1. people with a key
  2. people with the skill to open the door (burglar)
It's strange the UK thinks number 2 will never happen.
Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by coreyp_1 on Friday March 11, 2016 @05:48AM (#11265831)
#3. People who receive the key from #1 (in the future).

This may be next year's elected official, or the official elected in 10 years, or the spy who will work in the office 7 years and 2 months from now. Can you guarantee the intentions and actions of every single future government employee and official? This, in my opinion, is the biggest threat!

Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by jacquesm on Friday March 11, 2016 @05:57AM (#11265864)
You can't even guarantee the intentions and actions of the government in its entirety, good governments have historically been succeeded by bad ones in roughly the same way that rain eventually follows sunshine and the other way around. To assume infinite stability of government is a major mistake.
Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by xrorre on Friday March 11, 2016 @05:33AM (#11265786)
The second occurrence is not only inevitable, it refutes the notion of a door in the first place, which is supposed to be fully opened at some stage for long periods, not temporarily opened in-case-of-emergency, or half-shut just-in-case.
Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by madaxe_again on Friday March 11, 2016 @07:30AM (#11266189)
No, they do think and know (2) will happen, and are probably hoping it does, as they realise that when it happens they can use it as an argument as to why they need MORE surveillance powers and MORE backdoors because "the bad guys" are STILL getting through, so more surveillance powers will be needed to keep you safe from the evil without, and to help you keep your British values good and strong.
Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by CJefferson on Friday March 11, 2016 @05:48AM (#11265830)
Playing Devil's Advocate, couldn't the company require something signed with their private key to open the back door?

Apple (for example) would already be in serious trouble is someone got their private keys, they use them to sign OS updates for example. If they could generate a device-specific signed cookie to say "open up", what harm would that do?

Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by GordonS on Friday March 11, 2016 @07:23AM (#11266143)
These things also have a habit of growing arms and legs - so another issue is the number of people with the key. I can almost guarantee that at some point the number of people with the key will grow (police forces, councils...)

Yet another issue is oversight of those with the key (who watches the watchers)

Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by adventured on Friday March 11, 2016 @05:41AM (#11265805)
They know it'll happen. The terrible part is, they don't care. It's a risk they're willing to take to acquire the power they're after.
Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by joosters on Friday March 11, 2016 @05:50AM (#11265837)
...and yet we all still have door locks?

I don't think your analogy is going to help convince people that the policy is bad.

Re:UK surveillance powers bill could force startups to bake ... by elcct on Friday March 11, 2016 @05:45AM (#11265821)
And people with a key could take your data and sell it.