Should Cryptographers Take On The Surveillance State?

The Moral Failure of Computer Scientists

In the 1950s, a group of scientists spoke out against the dangers of nuclear weapons. Should cryptographers take on the surveillance state?

Kaveh | Waddell | December 11, 2015



Computer scientists and cryptographers occupy some of the ivory tower’s highest floors. Among academics, their work is prestigious and celebrated. To the average observer, much of it is too technical to comprehend. The field’s problems can sometimes seem remote from reality.
But computer science has quite a bit to do with reality. Its practitioners devise the surveillance systems that watch over nearly every space, public or otherwise—and they design the tools that allow for privacy in the digital realm. Computer science is political, by its very nature.

Source: https://www.csfs.org.uk/in-the-news/security-failures/the-moral-failure-of-computer-scientists/

<more at http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/the-moral-failure-of-computer-science/420012/; related links: https://www.csfs.org.uk/in-the-news/security-failures/the-moral-failure-of-computer-scientists/ (The Moral Failure of Computer Scientists. December 11, 2015) and https://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/~sgal018/AC2015/PhilMovie.mp4  (Professor Phillip Rogaway, Computer Science Professor at University of California, Davis)>