The Truth About Secrets

Apparently, somebody leaked the blueprints for the master keys used by the Transport Security Administration, or the TSA, and now anyone with a inquisitive or criminal mind and a 3D printer can make one. Or ten, if you really want.

I don’t claim to know much about this particular scandal, but from what I can tell, people out there can potentially break into your luggage. Well, they already could, but now they can do it much more easily, without breaking the bag itself. Or, to put it straight to you clear, the government gave itself a back door and then left it open for the criminals to waltz through. Brilliant sometimes, aren’t they?

That’s the problem with letting the government in on your secrets. It’s like telling a friend with a really big mouth.

You’d think that the government would have figured out the problem with the system quite easily, but they didn’t. And now we have to bear the consequences of it. I mean, I think it’s great that the government is trying to protect lives with the TSA locks, but couldn’t they have tried finding the loopholes in the system before they introduced it?

Well, I guess it didn’t, but now our problem is preventing the government from doing more things without thinking.

One little case study involves one massive tech company: Apple. Well, maybe the rest are involved too, but I only read about the fruit company, so I’ll talk about them. They’ve been embroiled in a wrestle with the American government, who wants yet another back door, but this time into iMessage conversations, so that they can use it for evidence in court cases and things like that.

Now there’s a problem. Not only does Apple not want to, even if it did, it can’t: the messages are encrypted, and even they don’t know the key. But that’s beside the point. The point is that when the government gets the back door that they want (no doubt they will, given the tactics they use), what happens when they leave the back door open again? No doubt it will be a cross between the current scandal with the TSA and the scandal with Ashley Madison, except that the information leaked will encompass much, much more that just marital problems. Also, a lot more than 33 million people use iOS.

So, what was the point of this whole thing? I’m just pointing out the truth about secrets: the more people who know about it, the easier it will come out. And the government infrastructure is a lot of people. It’s like a security compound with a million gates. Somewhere, somehow, the information will be leaked. And talking about leaks, a security compromise on that level is called a tsunami. The truth of the matter is that once you let the government in on a secret, it’s only a matter of time before the information comes out. Watergate, Snowden, and now this TSA scandal are all examples of secrets being leaked. So don’t build a back door for them in the first place, and the government won’t invite a party in.That’s the truth about secrets. Go tell all your friends. Or not.