Back in the 1990s, security researchers and privacy watchdogs were
alarmed by government demands that hardware and software firms build
"backdoors" into their products, the millions of personal computers and
cell phones propelling communication flows along the now-quaint
"information superhighway."
Never mind that the same factory-installed kit that allowed secret state
agencies to troll through private communications also served as a
discrete portal for criminal gangs to loot your bank account or steal
your identity.
To make matters worse, instead of the accountability promised the
American people by Congress in the wake of the Watergate scandal,
successive US administrations have worked assiduously to erect an
impenetrable secrecy regime backstopped by secret laws overseen by
secret courts which operate on the basis of secret administrative
subpoenas, latter day lettres de cachet.
But now that all their dirty secrets are popping out of Edward Snowden's
"bottomless briefcase," we also know the "Crypto Wars" of the 1990s
never ended.
Documents published by The Guardian and The New York Times
revealed that the National Security Agency "actively engages the US and
IT industries" and has "broadly compromised the guarantees that
internet companies have given consumers to reassure them that their
communications, online banking and medical records would be
indecipherable to criminals or governments."
