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[FYI] Ross Anderson: Confidentially yours
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] Ross Anderson: Confidentially yours
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>
- Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 21:44:09 +0200
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Organization: PA Axel H Horns
- Reply-to: horns@t-online.de
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http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19991106/confidenti.html
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Confidentially yours
Everyone's doing it. Banks, shops, governments, even the British
Civil Service--they're all trying to put services online.
Unfortunately, e-commerce and e-government are nothing without e-
trust. How will you know who you're really dealing with when you buy
that holiday or fill in that form online? At Cambridge University,
Ross Anderson and his team are trying to create the ultimate
instruments of online confidence in the shape of software tools that
encrypt information so strongly it can be read only by people who
hold the right decoding keys. But, as Anderson tells Ehsan Masood,
we'll only get the e-world we want if governments regulate encryption
wisely
You say you are not a typical cyberlibertarian. How do you define
this term? And why don't you see yourself as one?
Cyberlibertarians tend to see the Internet as leading to the
abolition of governments. Their idea is that given the advent of
anonymous e-mail, digital cash and so on, the state will no longer be
able to support itself by raising revenue through taxation. I don't
think this is likely or desirable. Think what England was like when
the government didn't really exist: anyone with any wealth or
property had to design their house to withstand infantry-strength
assault. That's not efficient. National governments and policemen
will survive the electronic revolution because of the efficiencies
they create.
[...]
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