WARM-UP VIDEO FOR ACADEMIC IELTS WORD LIST (SUBLIST 2)

Instructions. Preparing for IELTS? Studying academic vocabulary? This quiz will help you explore collocations of words from the Academic Word List

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Exercise. Complete each gap with suitable words and expressions you hear from the video.

There’s been a lot of talk about whether the British government will force companies like WhatsApp to introduce a backdoor into their encryption, so that the police and government can read your messages if they need to.

As I record this, they haven't done it yet, but the laws that could let them do so in the future are already in place.And here's something you might not expect me to say: that sounds like a reasonable idea.

After all, backdoors have been allowed for old-school phone conversations for decades. They're called wiretaps. And if a criminal investigation (1) …………..that they can get a (2) ………….. warrant, then they can look inside your postal mail, they can listen to your phone calls.

There is no way to work that out quickly. There are a few shortcuts that you can take, but it's still basically a brute-force (3) …………... Now imagine that you're not trying to work out 161, but instead something like this... or something close to it, and those companies can give that back to you whenever you want. Which means that when a government comes along with a (4) ………….. warrant, the companies can also give the messages to them. And this was fine, right? This was an acceptable compromise between security and usability. Or at least it was, until it was revealed that -- in short -- (5) …………..was keeping a copy of pretty much everything everyone ever wrote, at which point a few companies decided, that, actually, they didn't want to take the risk of anyone-- not even their own employees -- and everything after that is encrypted. And it's all automatic! And so WhatsApp and iMessage aren't open (6) ………….. , (7) ………….. they could steal your private key as well or quietly (8) ………….. a fake one to someone and sit in the middle listening, but in practice people would notice. Sure, there are small loopholes that could work in particular circumstances.

But it's impossible only because of the way they've designed their systems. And that is the vulnerability. A government could (9)………….. for Apple and Facebook to quietly add a backdoor in all their encryption if they want to sell anything in their country. 

So why is an encryption backdoor such a bad idea? Well, if there's a backdoor, it can and will be abused. (10) ………….. already used our surveillance laws, the ones that were brought in to stop terrorism, to monitor loud dogs barking, It's not just "what are they saying", it's "what have they ever said". That's all (11) ………….. the backdoor doesn't get abused by folks with more personal grievances. All it takes is one rogue employee, in the government or at a messaging app, and we've got a huge amount of personal information being leaked. Either of the public at large or of (12) ………….. people that someone would like to take revenge on. It fails the "bitter ex test": can someone with an agenda.

But an encryption backdoor wouldn't stop bad things happening. The problem with stopping terrorism right now is not a lack of information. The Manchester bomber was reported to the (13) ………….. five times, including by his own friends and family. One anonymous (14) ………….. inside the UK security services told Reuters that at any time there are 500 people being investigated, and about 3,000 people "of interest". For scale, just to reassure you, that's only about .005% of the UK population. But the way to solve this is not (15) ………….. , it's having enough police officers and security staff with enough time to do their jobs and investigate.

Key: Look at the key and say aloud the script from the video to improve your English.

There’s been a lot of talk about whether the British government will force companies like WhatsApp to introduce a backdoor into their encryption, so that the police and government can read your messages if they need to.

As I record this, they haven't done it yet, but the laws that could let them do so in the future are already in place.And here's something you might not expect me to say: that sounds like a reasonable idea.

After all, backdoors have been allowed for old-school phone conversations for decades. They're called wiretaps. And if a criminal investigation (1) (has enough evidence) that they can get a (2) (legal) warrant, then they can look inside your postal mail, they can listen to your phone calls. 

There is no way to work that out quickly. There are a few shortcuts that you can take, but it's still basically a brute-force (3) (method) . Now imagine that you're not trying to work out 161, but instead something like this... or something close to it, and those companies can give that back to you whenever you want. Which means that when a government comes along with a (4) (legal) warrant, the companies can also give the messages to them. And this was fine, right? This was an acceptable compromise between security and usability. Or at least it was, until it was revealed that -- in short -- (5) (every major government) was keeping a copy of pretty much everything everyone ever wrote, at which point a few companies decided, that, actually, they didn't want to take the risk of anyone-- not even their own employees -- and everything after that is encrypted. And it's all automatic! And so WhatsApp and iMessage aren't open (6) (source) , (7) (in theory) they could steal your private key as well or quietly (8) (issue) a fake one to someone and sit in the middle listening, but in practice people would notice. Sure, there are small loopholes that could work in particular circumstances, But it's impossible only because of the way they've designed their systems. And that is the vulnerability. A government could (9) (make it a legal requirement) for Apple and Facebook to quietly add a backdoor in all their encryption if they want to sell anything in their country. 

So why is an encryption backdoor such a bad idea? Well, if there's a backdoor, it can and will be abused. (10) (Local British authorities) already used our surveillance laws, the ones that were brought in to stop terrorism, to monitor loud dogs barking, It's not just "what are they saying", it's "what have they ever said". That's all (11) (assuming) the backdoor doesn't get abused by folks with more personal grievances. All it takes is one rogue employee, in the government or at a messaging app, and we've got a huge amount of personal information being leaked. Either of the public at large or of (12) (specific) people that someone would like to take revenge on. It fails the "bitter ex test": can someone with an agenda But an encryption backdoor wouldn't stop bad things happening. 

The problem with stopping terrorism right now is not a lack of information. The Manchester bomber was reported to the (13) (authorities) five times, including by his own friends and family. One anonymous (14) (source) inside the UK security services told Reuters that at any time there are 500 people being investigated, and about 3,000 people "of interest". For scale, just to reassure you, that's only about .005% of the UK population. But the way to solve this is not (15) (more data) , it's having enough police officers and security staff with enough time to do their jobs and investigate.

Sources: 

Channel: Tom Scott. Why The Government Shouldn't Break WhatsApp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CINVwWHlzTY&t=2s

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Compiled by Top Grade Edu