The US government has betrayed the Internet. We need to get it back in our hands.

From the translator: Bruce Schneier , a world-class specialist in cryptography and information security, as well as an active blogger and writer, published this article in The Guardian after it became known how bad things really are about security of cryptographic technologies, and which role in their poor condition was played by the NSA.

A week ago, I translated an article by Lionel Driko " World War I " from the blog of Ricard Falquing, the founder of the Pirate Party of Sweden, an emotional article and, perhaps, too sharp. Unlike the fiery propagandists of the Pirate Party, Bruce Schneier was always more restrained and calm in his assessments, as befits a reputable engineer and scientist. But now, it seems, patience is over and he.

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The government and big business have betrayed the Internet and you and me.
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Having distorted the Internet at all its levels, turning it into a tool for total surveillance, the NSA violated a fundamental social contract. We can no longer trust companies that create and manage the Internet infrastructure, who create and sell us hardware and software, store our data, we do not believe that they honestly serve the Internet.

This is not the Internet that the world needs, or that was conceived by its creators. We have to get him back. And by saying “we,” I mean the community of engineers and programmers.

Yes, first of all it is a political problem that requires a political solution. But at the same time, this is a technical problem, and there are several things that engineers can - and should - do.

First, we must not be silent. If you do not work with secret documents, and did not receive official requests from the special services, you cannot legally shut up your mouth with federal secrecy requirements. If the NSA asks you to put a backdoor in a software or protocol, you had better tell people about it. Your obligations to your employer do not include illegal or unethical activities. If you have access to secret information, and you have enough courage - make it public, then you know. We need informants behind enemy lines.

We need to know exactly how the NSA and other intelligence services make bookmarks in routers, switches, trunk lines, cryptographic technologies and cloud services. I already have five stories from ordinary people like you, and I just started collecting them. I need fifty. The more, the safer, and this is a very correct and ethical form of civil disobedience.

Secondly, we can design. We need to figure out how to redo the Internet to prevent total surveillance. We need new ways to protect against information brokers who steal our personal information.

We can make shadowing expensive and difficult again. We need open standards, open implementations, open systems - it will be much harder for the NSA to break their work.

An IETF meeting will be held in Vancouver in November - a group of professionals who develop the standards that underlie the Internet. The IETF should dedicate its next meeting to this issue. An emergency situation requires an emergency response.

Third, we can put pressure on the government. So far, I have tried to refrain from categorical judgments, and it is sad for me to say this, but the United States has proven that it cannot honestly serve the interests of the Internet. And the UK is no better. If the NSA acts by such methods, then how are we better than China, Russia, Iran? We need to develop new ways to manage the Internet, ways that make it difficult for powerful powers to control it. We must demand transparency, public oversight and accountability from governments and corporations.

Unfortunately, this can play into the hands of totalitarian regimes, which want to introduce even more stringent forms of observation and control in the national segments of the Internet. We need to figure out how to avoid this. We must not repeat the mistakes of the International Telecommunication Union, which has become a body that legitimizes the abuse of governments. It is necessary to create a truly international structure that cannot be manipulated by any single countries.

I hope that when our descendants look around for the first decades of the Internet, they will not be disappointed in us. We can be sure of this only if each of us makes it our number one task, and takes part in its solution. This is our duty , and we have no time left.

Dismantling the police state is a difficult task. At least one country engaged in mass surveillance of its citizens, refused this opportunity voluntarily? At least one country that has reached the state of a police state, has not slipped to totalitarianism? We have to be pioneers in this difficult matter.

I repeat once again, we face a more political task than a technical one, but the technical component is also critically important. We need to demand that these experts participate in government decision making in the field of the Internet. Enough with us lawyers and politicians who are practically not oriented in modern technology. When there is a discussion of state policy in the field of technology, it should involve technical experts.

And to the experts themselves, I will say this: we built the Internet, and some of us helped to destroy it. Now those who cherish freedom must fix it.