Encryption Back doors

I don't remember this story well enough to look it up. Even if it's true, I don't know if what version I remember is the truth, much less the whole truth. However, since I'm using the story as an example to illustrate my point, I don't think that that either point is relevant.

A long time ago, when Seattle was a frontier town, a local businessman owned a big fancy safe. The walls were rugged steel and the door had a combination lock that looked secure and reliable. People trusted his safe to store their valuables. However, after the businessman died, someone examined his safe. When he turned his safe around on its wheels, he noticed that the safe had a gaping hole in the back. Anyone could have turned the safe around and emptied the content.

This is what our law enforcement and intelligence agencies want our tech companies to do with our consumer encryption software. They wonder why our tech companies can't include a secret back door that only the good guys can use. The trouble is that the encryption technology doesn't play favorites. Anyone who buys the cellphone or downloads the program can disassemble the encryption system and find the secret back door.

The fact that I have to explain the dire implications of this to you makes me grieve

This is a security threat, not only to our citizens, but to any person on the face of the earth who uses US encryption technology. Hostile foreign forces could track dissidents or the international press or steal American technology. Organized crime could steal information of the phones of rich people to impersonate them and steal their money. Or they could encrypt someone's phone or computer and ransom it back for a fee. Investment bankers could steal confidential government information to engage in insider trading.

This is a bad idea. There is no such think as a private back door to encrypted data that only opens to the "Good Guys". Either the door is locked or the door is unlocked. Take your pick