Slashdot Mirror
Real Cyber-Spying
phr1 writes: "Kevin Poulsen has an article at The Register about a USAF sergeant arrested for emailing classified info to "Country A" (apparently Libya). The guy was something of a bozo, using free webmail accounts from locations near his home to email the stuff. It's an interesting read about a legitimate (for once) cyber-bust."
Unless, of course, the FBI gets a search warrant, raids your house and copies your secret key from your hard drive (or floppy disk, if you've tried to be that careful).
Or would they have to have a search warrant at all. Just carry out in illegal search, copy the key and just claim in court that you cracked the encryption using a new, classified method that cannot be revealed "for obvious reasons" (as in the keyboard logger case).
The pass phrase is susceptible either to the brute force method (or, if you're really paranoid, to the "rubberhose" method).
You know, I really dislike that editorial bit at the end, about finally a legitimate cyber-arrest.
We may not like the laws that are being used to hassle some people, but the laws are indeed on the books, and prosecuting people under those laws is indeed legitimate, even if they go against the know-it-all attitude displayed here on Slashdot.
For the record, DMCA is law, and arresting somebody that peddles a circumvention device that is specifically marketed to thward e-book security is legitimate, as long as the DMCA is in effect. Instead of endlessly harping about this arrest, and that witch hunt, do something... like helping out the EFF, or letting your local representatives and senators know about how you feel about these things.
What's the use? This is Slashdot.
That is exactly why I memorize my PGP key. Sometimes it takes me 2 minutes to type the whole thing in from a terminal.
It's a lot safer in my head. And if they try to MAKE me tell them, by the time I become submissive the numbers will jumble together and I will have forgotten it. Can a floppy do that? I think not.
-S
We Apprentice Developers and Designers
Spend some time watching "The FBI Files" or another of those true crime shows. In every single case, the killer is caught either through
a) dumb luck (the cop, after five years of searching, bumps into the guy at disneyland or something)
b) dumb criminal (going back to the scene of the crime, going to the cops with some "new evidence" long after you were cleared, running directly to your mother's, girlfriend's, or best friend's house to "hide out")
I have no doubt that the spy game works the same way.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"