All your Content are belong to Us — how the Crypto Wars continue

Encryption is one of our favourite topics. This blog and our events feature discussions, tools, and content regarding cryptography. The first DeepSec conference in 2007 even had a presentation about a practical attack on GSM’s A5/1 algorithm. Subsequent conferences followed up on this, for example, the state of affairs of mobile network security in 2010. We use encryption and high levels of privacy in our own communication. Certain published documents emphasize the importance of using uncompromised and modern encryption algorithms. In the meantime, users have moved to messengers using TCP/IP on top of the mobile network transmissions. This enables full end-to-end encryption and privacy. The problems are still the same as in the 1990s. Enter the continuation of the Crypto Wars.

On 23 March the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) Rostock in Germany argued that the very use of specialized cryptographic devices and tools indicate conspiratorial behaviour to commit and conceal crimes. The trial lawyer describes the verdict in his blog (the article is written in German). By using this argumentation the court basically reverses the presumption of innocence. Extending this logic to businesses does not bode well for secure communication, invoicing, teleconferencing, and a metric ton of cloud services used by individuals and organizations…