A history of backdoors
Summary
Matthew Green analyzes historical 'backdoor' proposals and cryptographic weaknesses, from the Clipper chip to TLS export ciphers, illustrating how design flaws and secrecy undermine security. The piece argues that deliberate weakening of crypto harms both user privacy and overall security, with lessons for modern cryptographic engineering and policy debates. It also highlights real-world vulnerabilities like FREAK and LogJam.