The US government has betrayed the Internet. We need to take it back

[jsqnanog at quarterman.com (John S. Quarterman)]

> True I shot from the hip, he does address the concerns later.

It happens.

> I'm used 
> to implementing technologies to solve security problems. It's just damn 
> frustrating to have your hands tied in such a way that you can not and 
> that's the position that I see myself and most other network ops in.

Maybe NSA has provided a marketing opportunity to get the public
to demand real security.

> Our customers decided at the ballot box that they didn't want 
> protection and it was acceptable to entrust their privacy to the system. 
> They seem to forget that decision when they ask if they are vulnerable 
> to this type of intercept and what they can do about it. The answer is 
> not much because I will not and can not break the law, it's unethical 
> and wrong. I will encourage people to seek to change the laws to 
> encourage true end to end security but the odds of that happening are 
> near 0.

If everybody refuses to try, the odds are indeed zero.

So maybe we should try.

> Sam

-jsq

> On 2013-09-06 06:47, John S. Quarterman wrote:
> >> On 2013-09-06 05:57, Roland Dobbins wrote:
> >
> >> > There are no purely technical solutions to social ills.  Schneier 
> >> of
> >> > all people should know this.
> >
> > Schneier does know this, and explicitly said this.
> >
> > -jsq
> >
> >
> > 
> > http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/05/government-betrayed-in
> ternet-nsa-spying
> >
> > Three, we can influence governance. I have resisted saying this up to 
> > now,
> > and I am saddened to say it, but the US has proved to be an unethical
> > steward of the internet. The UK is no better. The NSA's actions are
> > legitimizing the internet abuses by China, Russia, Iran and others. 
> > We
> > need to figure out new means of internet governance, ones that makes 
> > it
> > harder for powerful tech countries to monitor everything. For 
> > example,
> > we need to demand transparency, oversight, and accountability from 
> > our
> > governments and corporations.
> >
> > Unfortunately, this is going play directly into the hands of 
> > totalitarian
> > governments that want to control their country's internet for even 
> > more
> > extreme forms of surveillance. We need to figure out how to prevent 
> > that,
> > too. We need to avoid the mistakes of the International 
> > Telecommunications
> > Union, which has become a forum to legitimize bad government 
> > behavior,
> > and create truly international governance that can't be dominated or
> > abused by any one country.
> >
> > Generations from now, when people look back on these early decades of
> > the internet, I hope they will not be disappointed in us. We can 
> > ensure
> > that they don't only if each of us makes this a priority, and engages 
> > in
> > the debate. We have a moral duty to do this, and we have no time to 
> > lose.
> >
> > Dismantling the surveillance state won't be easy. Has any country 
> > that
> > engaged in mass surveillance of its own citizens voluntarily given up
> > that capability? Has any mass surveillance country avoided becoming
> > totalitarian? Whatever happens, we're going to be breaking new 
> > ground.
> >
> > Again, the politics of this is a bigger task than the engineering, 
> > but
> > the engineering is critical. We need to demand that real 
> > technologists
> > be involved in any key government decision making on these issues. 
> > We've
> > had enough of lawyers and politicians not fully understanding 
> > technology;
> > we need technologists at the table when we build tech policy.
> >
> > To the engineers, I say this: we built the internet, and some of us 
> > have
> > helped to subvert it. Now, those of us who love liberty have to fix 
> > it.