Government snooping, backdoors and #necessaryhashtags

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Also, I had been unaware of crypto guru Dan Bernstein's central role in their second major case, that related to exportation of crypto technologies.

I was a minor participant in the trenches during the First Crypto Wars. In particular, I played a small rôle in the Bernstein case. I sent an American lawyer unambiguous proof that I (and by extension, anyone else in the UK) had access to the source code of PEM with its symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic protection for email.

The same lawyer gratefully received a one-line C program I wrote which implemented a OTP. It took him quite a time to persuade the State Department to rule that it wasn't export-controlled crypto code despite implementing an unbreakable cryptosystem.

Lots of other fun things happened 20-25 years ago. By fun, I mean politically embarrassing for certain US officials. UK officials too, for that matter. Some of us old warriors are still active but it's good to see the next generation also getting involved.

[ewmayer]

o Juniper Networks will drop code tied to National Security Agency | Reuters

Even though its revision-control system surely must tell the complete "when, who and (allegedly) why" story here, we are expected to swallow some pathetic line about "Juniper said it was continuing to investigate."

o Up to 70 Percent of Global Internet Traffic Goes Through Northern Virginia | Nextgov

Thankfully that is nowhere near the extended US SIGINT 'campus' the article refers to as the heart of "spook country" ... oh, wait ... Note that Amazon Web Services gets a prominent treatment.

[Nick]

I wouldn't assume that the NSA has not hacked revision control systems as a way to inject code...

[Nick]

The court of appeal in London has ruled that the UK Terrorism Act is not compatible with the European convention on human rights.

The appeal was brought by David Miranda (Glenn Greenwald's partner) after he was detained in transit at London's Heathrow Airport in 2013.

Press article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...d-miranda-case

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Nick

The court of appeal in London has ruled that the UK Terrorism Act is not compatible with the European convention on human rights.

The appeal was brought by David Miranda (Glenn Greenwald's partner) after he was detained in transit at London's Heathrow Airport in 2013.

Press article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...d-miranda-case

Thanks for the link.

So a bunch of High Lords deem that Miranda's 'detention was lawful' even though the law under which it was made is itself unlawful. Lord Kafka will be pleased to hear of this.

[retina]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

So a bunch of High Lords deem that Miranda's 'detention was lawful' even though the law under which it was made is itself unlawful. Lord Kafka will be pleased to hear of this.

The unlawful law was supposed to only be used to catch terrorists (whatever that means), but as usual function creep takes over and the laws get used where they are most convenient. Original intents be damned, it is all about using the laws to intimidate and suppress whatever puts "them" (the spooks/politicians/cops/etc.) in danger of being exposed and/or curtailed.

[Nick]

US lawmakers delay bill on European data privacy deal

The Judicial Redress Act would allow EU citizens to sue over data privacy in the US but is likely to miss a January deadline for completion

If this is not resolved, any company transferring personal data from the EU to the US after 1 February could face fines for doing so.

Press article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...acy-deal-us-eu

[only_human]

Researchers develop sarcasm detector for Twitter and that's no joke

Part of detecting sarcasm included individual tweets, account details from the user’s profile, past tweets and content, and any details regarding the tweeter’s audience that may be available. Surprisingly, this test resulted in an 85 percent accuracy level – 10 percent higher than the sarcasm detected when analyzing just the tweet alone.

According to those researching the sarcasm detector, some of the most common indicators in an author’s profile include the terms, sarcasm, chemistry, atheist, and humor. Which you may want to consider adding to your profile so that even if your friends don’t get you, computers will.

[only_human]

Judge in FBI Hacking Case Is Unclear on How FBI Hacking Works

“I suppose there is somebody sitting in a cubicle somewhere with a keyboard doing this stuff. I don't know that. It may be they seed the clouds, and the clouds rain information."

Another exchange showed how it can be difficult for judge’s to conceptualise where data obtained from malware is sourced from, and where it goes.

“Do the FBI experts have any way to look at the NIT information other than going to the server?” Judge Bryan asked.

“Your Honor, they don't go to the server,” Colin Fieman, a federal public defender who is representing Michaud, replied.

“Where do they go? How do they get the information?”

“They get it from Mr. Michaud's computer.”

“They don't have his computer.”

“That's what the NIT is for,” Fieman explained.

[retina]

https://recode.net/2016/01/20/suppor...ryption-comic/

NOBUS is not possible. And even if it was possible who would you trust to be the "Us"? No one is beyond reproach.

[kladner]

The story is in regard to surveillance in Pakistan. The faulty technique used to "identify terrorists" is more broadly applicable.
"Ridiculously optimistic" machine learning algorithm is "completely bullshit," says expert.

In 2014, the former director of both the CIA and NSA proclaimed that "we kill people based on metadata." Now, a new examination of previously published Snowden documents suggests that many of those people may have been innocent.

Last year, The Intercept published documents detailing the NSA's SKYNET programme. According to the documents, SKYNET engages in mass surveillance of Pakistan's mobile phone network, and then uses a machine learning algorithm on the cellular network metadata of 55 million people to try and rate each person's likelihood of being a terrorist.

Patrick Ball—a data scientist and the executive director at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group—who has previously given expert testimony before war crimes tribunals, described the NSA's methods as "ridiculously optimistic" and "completely bullshit." A flaw in how the NSA trains SKYNET's machine learning algorithm to analyse cellular metadata, Ball told Ars, makes the results scientifically unsound.