spy on us, but now they want to make it official.
A proposed policy change in the European Union could put the privacy of millions of internet users at risk. This policy, known as "Article 45," is part of the wider eIDAS 2.0 regulation and may significantly weaken web security.
The core issue with Article 45 is that it could allow government-appointed groups, known as Certificate Authorities (CAs), to potentially spy on encrypted web traffic. hashtag#Encryption is the technical process of scrambling data sent over the internet so that unauthorized parties can't make sense of it, thus keeping it private.
However, Article 45 could create a situation where some CAs, appointed and even operated by government entities, could have a kind of master key. With this, they might access encrypted data passing through the web, infringing on individual privacy.
Now, how would that impact you and other regular users?
If this policy goes forward, it's possible that tech companies will have to create two versions of their products: one for the EU with lower security standards and one for the rest of the world meeting the current security standards.
This situation isn't dissimilar to the past when the U.S. had export controls on hashtag#cryptography, leading to two versions of software - a stronger one for U.S. users and a weaker one for everyone else. That approach brought about substantial drawbacks to web security then and could do so again.
Moreover, this policy could limit the capability of browsers to enforce robust security measures on these CAs. For instance, they might not be able to enforce 'Certificate Transparency,' a standard measure used to monitor and ensure that CAs are behaving appropriately. With this enforcement potentially banned, any government spying through this method could go undetected.
Remember, the role of a CA is critical for enabling secure, encrypted communication on the web. If a CA were to misuse that role and issue certificates to unauthorized parties, those parties could intercept and read your private information.
By introducing Article 45, the EU's action could reduce online security for all users, regardless of their location. If you're using the internet in the EU or communicating with someone there, your online privacy could be compromised.
This policy isn't final yet and will be subject to approval on November 8. So it's critical to stay informed about these issues and voice your concerns about the potential risks to internet privacy and security.
This point of view is 50/50 conspiracy/legit. We all know there are different types of encryption, let’s say AES-256 or elliptic curve cryptography are very hard to crack - it will take ages to break it. Anyways, when government is the entity that performing the breaking, it will end up using social engineering - for example one govt worker will pretend to build whitelabel for Sentinel, then will build it actually and meet ProjectAutonomy in person. In this way social engineering will be useful, but in terms of breaking cryptography encryption - it is not so effective for govt.
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