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<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>A veteran cryptographer has ignited furious debate over <a href="http://www.wired.com/2016/01/david-chaum-father-of-online-anonymity-plan-to-end-the-crypto-wars/">a proposal</a> that could allegedly solve the "crypto war" over law enforcement access to encrypted data - but whose detractors think is incredibly dangerous.<p>Simply put, the crypto war is all about encryption technology and whether it should be breakable. As more and more big tech companies incorporate encryption into their products that can't be broken by anyone without the correct password or key, law enforcement officials have been up in arms, worried that vital evidence is <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/stopping-terrorists-from-going-dark-1450914378">"going dark."</a></p><p>But, technologists and privacy activists counter, this is better than the alternative - backdoors for law enforcement access that would <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/12/juniper-networks-hidden-backdoors-show-the-risk-of-government-backdoors/">inevitably be discovered and abused by malicious actors</a>. And besides, how do you convince a criminal to use a backdoored system when there are plenty of others out there that don't have such vulnerabilities, and are outside of the jurisdiction of authorities angling for access?</p><p>On Wednesday, <a href="http://www.wired.com/2016/01/david-chaum-father-of-online-anonymity-plan-to-end-the-crypto-wars/">Wired's Andy Greenberg published a story</a> about a proposal by David Chaum, a well-respected and veteran of the field (so much so that Greenberg describes him as the "father of online anonymity.")</p><p>Chaum is building something called PrivaTegrity. It's an online network that anonymises the user and allows for messaging and other functions. He said: "It's a way to create a separate online reality ... One in which all the various things we now know people like to do online can be done in a lightweight manner under a completely different and new and very attractive privacy and security model."</p><p>It uses nine special servers to encrypt users' data, based in nine different countries. But - and this is where it gets controversial - if all nine work together, they can decrypt a user's data.</p><p>The logic is that this will prevent abuses like mass government surveillance (a reason many people use encryption tools), but allows for access when there is a legitimate need all can agree on - terrorism, or a paedophile ring, for example. Chaum also argues that it wouldn't have the same weakness as a traditional backdoor, because all nine would need to be compromised for an attacker to have any effect: "These systems would be far more hardened than even corporate systems, and to abuse the backdoor you'd have to break all of them."</p><p>He says this is a solution to the current crypto "logjam" being debated. "We don't have to give up on privacy. We don't have to allow terrorists and drug dealers to use it. We can have a civil society electronically without the possibility of covert mass surveillance."</p><p>Chaum's proposal immediately sparked debate on Twitter, with many reacting extremely negatively to the proposals.</p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p>Christopher Soghoian, who works for the ACLU, says the proposals are a gift to the authorities pushing for backdoor access to systems:</p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p>Marcy Wheeler, an independent national security journalist weighed in:</p><p><div></div></p><p>Here's Matt Blaze, a respected cryptographer:</p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Later on Wednesday, David Chaum publicly presented PrivaTegrity at the Real World Crypto conference. Audience members once again reacted badly.</p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Leaving aside the problem of abuse and the vulnerability of backdoors, there's arguably another - fundamental - problem with PrivaTegrity.</p><p>Chaum says it will be used to stop undisputably "evil" people: Terrorists, paedophiles, drug dealers, and so on. But why would they choose to use a platform that is already deliberately, publicly backdoored, when a plethora of options already exist that have no such weaknesses?</p><h3><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/294737065/cMix-Anonymization-by-High-Performance-Scalable-Mixing">You can read David Chaum's paper on cMix, the tech that underpins PrivaTegrity, here »</a></h3><p><div><p style=" margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;">   <a title="View cMix: Anonymization by High-Performance Scalable Mixing on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/294737065" style="text-decoration: underline;">cMix: Anonymization by High-Performance Scalable Mixing</a></p></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/make-safari-more-secure-iphone-2015-12">How to make Safari more secure on your iPhone</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tpOWpseTqLOvnMi33ieSwpoak3YbeV5c" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

There's a huge debate over an encryption expert's plan solve the problem of online privacy

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There's a huge debate over an encryption expert's plan solve the problem of online privacy

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