   Bin Laden and encryption BEFORE September 11
  I was searching the net about encryption tonight and I ran across this article:http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htmThis article talks about how terrorist groups (and specifically mentions Bin Laden) use encryption to plan out there attacks in secrecy, preventing the authorities who monitor these kinds of things from gaining any intelligence about their attacks. I found it most interesting that this article was written 6/19/01, almost 3 months before the terrorist attacks on the U.S.I used to be under the opinion that we have the right to use whatever kind of encryption that we would like, but after reading this article and realizing that this article basically says "I told you so" (since it was written before the attacks), I am questioning whether strong encryption should be legal or not. I''m starting to lean towards the idea that if you aren''t doing anything wrong why would you have anything to hide? Or course there are practical uses for encryptions such as business, so there are good sides and bad sides.Anyway, without getting to heavy into what I think (because I''m not totally sure at this point), I''d like to hear what other people think about this issue.  
  One question: Would making strong encryption illegal make the targeted people stop using it? No. I like encryption, I like secrecy, do I use it? No. But I like having the option. The minute anything like encryption becomes illegal, I''ll flip out.    [Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!];  N&V, that''s two questions Terrorists aren''t exactly law-abiding citizens, and I don''t think that they would be concerned about the legality of the encryption they are using. And it seems like the article is saying that the government needs to be able to crack any encryption you do use ... which kind of defeats the point, doesn''t it?   ;  I don''t see how that "defeats the point."  I''m not saying it doesn''t, I''m just not sure what you mean.  Please explain ;  Supposed the terrorists used regular english ascii text in e-mails, then would it make it ok to make e-mail illegal or to read everyone''s e-mail?  Oops they already do that.  ;  hmm...I thought the NSA was much l33ter than that. That''s pretty sad that they spent a whole year to decrypt that file.    ---------------------------------------------My useless posts have been viewed  times  ;  Don''t get into your goverment''s game, they are using the attacks so you think exactly what you say, gee, we should make encription illegal, we should allow the FBI to tap our phones, we should have the CIA with access to every email we write, taking away freedom is not going to make terrorists go away, instead it will create terrorists inside your country, people who wants their freedom back.  ;  Well, isn''t the whole point of encryption to make sure that other people _can''t_ access the data?  ;quote:Original post by Kwizatz  Don''t get into your goverment''s game, they are using the attacks so you think exactly what you say, gee, we should make encription illegal, we should allow the FBI to tap our phones, we should have the CIA with access to every email we write, taking away freedom is not going to make terrorists go away, instead it will create terrorists inside your country, people who wants their freedom back.  That''s what I''m worried about now. I mailed my local representative and my senators about this. Of course, I don''t tell them I''m not old enough to vote yet  (Hey, I''m close, heh).    [Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!];  I think I''ll go encrypt all the files on my hard drive, just to piss off the government ...  