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Software to Support Human Rights
An anonymous reader writes "Some software rollouts have lives hanging in the balance. Human rights workers in massacre zones from El Salvador to Kosovo face prying eyes peering into their address books and logs, who follow up with bullets and poison gas. One project, Martus, takes these hostile environments into account: a leak can get whole families killed. They use encryption, distributed backup, and other techniques designed to survive the ultimate corrosive environment: vindictive armies in countrysides in the throes of war. The source code is open, to allow meaningful contributions from anyone willing to help. These people bet their lives on open source and private data. The sponsor organization, Benetech in Silicon Valley, funds projects that arm global rights workers, and people under siege, with communications tools that counterbalance the overwhelming force used to exterminate everything "Free"."
Also vim helps human rights... "Uganda licence" is a good idea to make OS Software even more useful...
And soon enough even the possession of these kinds of tools will be enough to put people in jail. After all, they were probably using them to swap MP3s or kiddie-pr0n or even plan terrorist acts.
Strong crypto is only a part of the answer (whatever that answer may be).
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
One of these being the U.S.G. (government), thru its Department of State (State Department).
Clearly, as usual, imperialism wants its finger in EVERY pie; but in this case, because the source is free and open they have little possibility of gaining any kind of meaningful, long-term leverage over this process/phenomenon -- other than the usual up-front political kind (because FI we don't yet have software to make ourselves politically smart).
My point is that, while states which support this type of NGO activity invariably wish to bend said NGOs to their political will (as in, FI, the situation with Human Rights Watch -- which appears, effectively, to be little more than an arm of the aforementioned U.S. State Dept.) and 'document' the crimes of their opponents, the same methods can and will be used to document the huge number of human rights abuses of these very states -- first and foremost those of the U.S.G. and its corporate backers.
i can see how it can work in a communications context, but how does this work in the case of an addressbook/contact list?
..much better would be to obfuscate the access method or even disguse the device as something seemingly innocuous - say a minidisk recorder with 'easter egg' access.
;)
such a device would require knowledge of a key/passcode on the owner's behalf simply to access the device/transmission/address. chances are you will find the key-bearer w/ the device. and when they do i suppose it wouldnt be difficult to 'extract' this key from the holder.
2 way comms i can understand, but as long as you can get the password/fingerprint/retina required for access out of the user, then such safeguards seem pointless.
all of the security safeguards we usually employ are with respect to people doing it behind your back without your 'assistance'..
L, R, L, R, U, D, U, D, Select + Start
<B>note to self:</B> <I>post as html</I>
You didn't snip enough to tell folks the REAL power of Rubberhose.
It is possible to create encrypted containers 'embedded' in other ecrypted containers (Matryoshka-doll fashion), each protected with a password. So when the 'thugs' come knocking, you can give them a password which will unlock the outer container, without compromising the inner ones (which, obviously, aren't visible- you have to KNOW they exist).
Of course, the thugs already know about this software, so you can repeat the above process- give them three passwords and then say "that's all there is"- they can't prove otherwise.
Let's be pragmatic, though- this is only going to work if you believe the thugs would let you go if they couldn't prove anything. Otherwise, it's simpler to use gpg and a cyanide pill.
Yes they can get the key out of you ('rubber hose cryptanalysis') but there are some systems where you can have several keys and each key reveals different data - so you could disclose a key which gives a dummy, fairly uninformative address book. Then there is no way to show that extra data is hidden unless you have the extra keys. This means that when you say 'I have told you everything I know' there is no way to verify that claim. This has both good and bad points.
Disguising the data in something else like a minidisk recorder is a good idea but obviously not everyone can do that - each person must choose a different kind of disguise, so it gets tricky.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
It occours to me that (all political discussions aside) this software would be most effective on legacy equiptment and Palmtop computers. It should probably be ported to a text-based interface for DOS, Linux, and some sort of port for PalmOS.
Don't forget that their favorite present methods are surreptitious entry into your domicile to plant key logging software or hardware, etc. I'm sure they're even now using trojaned software to piggyback spyware right onto your machine without even having to jimmy your locks.
Here are Chip Berlett's 1992 characteristics of
historical fascism (as seen in Spain, Germany,
Italy and Japan):
*** Nationalism and super-patriotism with a sense of historic mission.
*** Aggressive militarism even to the extent of glorifying war as good for the national or individual spirit.
*** Use of violence or threats of violence to impose views on others (fascism and Nazism both employed street violence and state violence at different moments in their development).
*** Authoritarian reliance on a leader or elite not constitutionally responsible to an electorate.
*** Cult of personality around a charismatic leader.
*** Reaction against the values of Modernism, usually with emotional attacks against both liberalism and communism.
*** Exhortations for the homogeneous masses of common folk (Volkish in German, Populist in the U.S.) to join voluntarily in a heroic mission_often metaphysical and romanticized in character.
*** Dehumanization and scapegoating of the enemy_seeing the enemy as an inferior or subhuman force, perhaps involved in a conspiracy that justifies eradicating them.
*** The self image of being a superior form of social organization beyond socialism, capitalism and democracy.
*** Elements of national socialist ideological roots, for example, ostensible support for the industrial working class or farmers; but ultimately, the forging of an alliance with an elite sector of society.
*** Abandonment of any consistent ideology in a drive for state power.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-