Government snooping, backdoors and #necessaryhashtags - Page 42

kladner · 2014-07-25, 19:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by xilman

You think you've got problems? Here in the UK posting certain facts and opinions are de facto criminal offences.

http://twitter.com/rj_gallagher/stat...629696/photo/1

In light of the above, you are under arrest. Please turn yourself in to the Ministry of Truth to save us the trouble of coming after you.

Nick · 2014-07-25, 21:50

In Ross Anderson's book "Security Engineering" he states that public key crypto was invented at GCHQ before Diffie and Hellman thought of it, but kept secret. The intelligence services didn't think of using it for digital signatures, however, so that was genuinely new.

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/SEv2-c05.pdf (see the final page)

Let's hope there are no Mersenne primes which are state secrets!

ewmayer · 2014-08-27, 22:00

The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google

Quote:

The National Security Agency is secretly providing data to nearly two dozen U.S. government agencies with a “Google-like” search engine built to share more than 850 billion records about phone calls, emails, cellphone locations, and internet chats, according to classified documents obtained by The Intercept.

The documents provide the first definitive evidence that the NSA has for years made massive amounts of surveillance data directly accessible to domestic law enforcement agencies. Planning documents for ICREACH, as the search engine is called, cite the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration as key participants.

ewmayer · 2014-09-01, 23:43

Trio of NSA-realted links:

o How the NSA Helped Turkey Kill Kurdish Rebels | The Intercept

o A Two-Faced Friendship: Turkey Is ‘Partner and Target’ for the NSA | Der Spiegel

o NSA Uses Speech-To-Text Systems To Record (Your?) Phonecalls | Moon of Alabama

A reader of the latter comments:

I recall reading that one of the up-and-coming dissidents from an Eastern Bloc country had all of his phone calls recorded. When the authorities felt that he was becoming too influential, they did not arrest him or beat him. They broadcast excerpts from his phone calls on the radio, where he was gossiping and complaining about friends to other friends (as we are all wont to do sometimes). It made him look petty, so everyone treated him with disdain after that.

It is easy to run an authoritarian regime when you have dirt on everyone. Nowadays, the government can selectively leak the dirt to a friendly media outlet.

That applies just as well to politicians as it does to dissidents: "About your recent public questioning of NSA domestic surveillance, Senator..."

ewmayer · 2014-09-03, 01:21

The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni: Feds call it “twelve triple three”; whistleblower says it's the heart of the problem.

As with the now hollowed-out and financialized-to-shite US and global economy, yet another "triumph" of the "Reagan Revolution." (The late Ms. Thatcher gets co-billing in the UK, obviously.) In the U.S., every president since Reagan has - whatever rhetoric he may have used - been an acolyte of Reaganomics: Deregulation, financialization, offshoring, evisceration of the middle class, de facto government partnership with the looter elite. The parallel growth of the national security state took until 9/11 2001 to really ramp up, but has been making up for lost time since then. Both of these deeply antidemocratic trends have a common core strategy which can be summed up as "keep 'em insecure". Huge debt loads (= "how the TBTF banks became TB") and insecurity about jobs allows the corporate oligarchs to accrue unprecedented wealth; terror-propaganda-driven "national insecurity" allows the metastasizing NatSec state and MIC to accrue unprecedented wealth and power, and makes an ever-deepening mockery of the supposedly hallowed concept of "the rule of law".

And speaking as a resident of that state, if every living person adversely affected by one of Rawnie Ray-gun`s militaristic or real-economy-wrecking inanities were able to piss on R's grave, California's water crisis would be solved instantly.

Nick · 2014-09-04, 11:45

Judge may hold Microsoft in contempt after refusal to hand over foreign data

Quote:

Obama administration contends that company with operations in US must comply with warrants for data, even if stored abroad.

http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...e-data-dispute

This problem has been brewing for years in various networks, both transportation
and communication. Jurisdictions with conflicting laws are starting to overlap, and
even US companies now appear less willing to give in to the US government after
Snowden.

ewmayer · 2014-09-04, 21:36

Scylla and Charybdis for MSFT: Get in trouble with the US kangaroo courts for (for once) standing up to the demands of the NatSec shadow state, or get sued by the EU for violating its privacy laws.

Given how all the US big data cos. were 100% in bed with the NSA until very recently, I say 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Xyzzy · 2014-09-12, 00:45

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...dnt-use-prism/

ewmayer · 2014-09-12, 03:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...dnt-use-prism/

Commenter "beebee" best captures my view, namely that by agreeing to fight in the secret, rigged kangaroo FISA courts and then just quietly complying Yahoo gave up its best chance of prevailing and revealing the extent of the government's post-9/11 pissing-on-the-Constitution years before it was finally revealed by the Snowden leaks. Yahoo (or at least one big tech CEO with a semblance of a conscience) should have moved the fight first and foremost to the court of public opinion. As beebee notes:

Quote:

As I have stated many times, when the government tries to collect [the threatened fine], how do they cover that up? A fine paid to the feds with no reason would attract attention. The program needs to be kept secret.

When they threaten jail for contempt, it would be tough to explain why a CEO is behind bars with no public charge.

Yeah, I suppose I can talk tough since it isn't me doing the time, but I assure you no CEO would spend more that a few days in jail. The shit storm would be epic.

kladner · 2014-09-12, 03:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...dnt-use-prism/

From the sidebar of the above article. This may not be Snowden material.

kladner · 2014-09-18, 21:11

.....even with search warrants.

Quote:

The move, announced with the publication of a new privacy policy tied to the release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, amounts to an engineering solution to a legal quandary: Rather than comply with binding court orders, Apple has reworked its latest encryption in a way that prevents the company — or anyone but the device’s owner — from gaining access to the vast troves of user data typically stored on smartphones or tablet computers.

[SNARK]I guess they will have to revive the use of thumb screws to extract the passwords from users directly.[/SNARK]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...92f_story.html

2014-07-25, 21:50	#453
Nick Dec 2012 The Netherlands 29·59 Posts	Facts as state secrets In Ross Anderson's book "Security Engineering" he states that public key crypto was invented at GCHQ before Diffie and Hellman thought of it, but kept secret. The intelligence services didn't think of using it for digital signatures, however, so that was genuinely new. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/SEv2-c05.pdf (see the final page) Let's hope there are no Mersenne primes which are state secrets!

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2014-09-01, 23:43	#455
ewmayer ∂²ω=0 Sep 2002 República de California 19×613 Posts	Trio of NSA-realted links: o How the NSA Helped Turkey Kill Kurdish Rebels \| The Intercept o A Two-Faced Friendship: Turkey Is ‘Partner and Target’ for the NSA \| Der Spiegel o NSA Uses Speech-To-Text Systems To Record (Your?) Phonecalls \| Moon of Alabama A reader of the latter comments: I recall reading that one of the up-and-coming dissidents from an Eastern Bloc country had all of his phone calls recorded. When the authorities felt that he was becoming too influential, they did not arrest him or beat him. They broadcast excerpts from his phone calls on the radio, where he was gossiping and complaining about friends to other friends (as we are all wont to do sometimes). It made him look petty, so everyone treated him with disdain after that. It is easy to run an authoritarian regime when you have dirt on everyone. Nowadays, the government can selectively leak the dirt to a friendly media outlet. That applies just as well to politicians as it does to dissidents: "About your recent public questioning of NSA domestic surveillance, Senator..."

2014-09-03, 01:21	#456
ewmayer ∂²ω=0 Sep 2002 República de California 19·613 Posts	The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni: Feds call it “twelve triple three”; whistleblower says it's the heart of the problem. As with the now hollowed-out and financialized-to-shite US and global economy, yet another "triumph" of the "Reagan Revolution." (The late Ms. Thatcher gets co-billing in the UK, obviously.) In the U.S., every president since Reagan has - whatever rhetoric he may have used - been an acolyte of Reaganomics: Deregulation, financialization, offshoring, evisceration of the middle class, de facto government partnership with the looter elite. The parallel growth of the national security state took until 9/11 2001 to really ramp up, but has been making up for lost time since then. Both of these deeply antidemocratic trends have a common core strategy which can be summed up as "keep 'em insecure". Huge debt loads (= "how the TBTF banks became TB") and insecurity about jobs allows the corporate oligarchs to accrue unprecedented wealth; terror-propaganda-driven "national insecurity" allows the metastasizing NatSec state and MIC to accrue unprecedented wealth and power, and makes an ever-deepening mockery of the supposedly hallowed concept of "the rule of law". And speaking as a resident of that state, if every living person adversely affected by one of Rawnie Ray-gun`s militaristic or real-economy-wrecking inanities were able to piss on R's grave, California's water crisis would be solved instantly.

2014-09-04, 21:36	#458
ewmayer ∂²ω=0 Sep 2002 República de California 19·613 Posts	Scylla and Charybdis for MSFT: Get in trouble with the US kangaroo courts for (for once) standing up to the demands of the NatSec shadow state, or get sued by the EU for violating its privacy laws. Given how all the US big data cos. were 100% in bed with the NSA until very recently, I say 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

2014-09-12, 00:45	#459
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 20065₈ Posts	http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...dnt-use-prism/