Bin Laden's Sneakernet Email System

Hugh Pickens writes "Osama bin Laden was a prolific writer who put together a painstaking email system that thwarted the US government's best eavesdroppers despite having no Internet access in his hideout. Holed up in his walled compound in northeast Pakistan with no phone or Internet capabilities, bin Laden would type a message on his computer, save it using a thumb-sized flash drive that he passed to a trusted courier, who would head for a distant Internet cafe. At that location, the courier would plug the drive into a computer, copy bin Laden's message into an email and send it. Intelligence officials are wading through thousands of the email exchanges after around 100 flash drives were seized from the compound by US Navy Seals."

Comments

Painstaking?

[j00r0m4nc3r]

How is that painstaking? That's like calling writing a telegram painstaking.

Re:The Onion Router

[x6060]

Tor does have a few potential vulnerabilities and it would not surprise me in the least if the NSA did have a way of tracking it. The way Osama decided to do it shifted the vulnerability from an electronic one to a personal loyalty one. With his age, experience and knowledge im sure he was able to better control and protect the later rather than the former. Its also very similar to his previous methods. Low tech - High concept.

Re:The Onion Router

[darjen]

Because everyone knows the FBI/CIA/NSA operate "anonymous" Tor nodes.

Re:The Onion Router

[x6060]

I also feel the need to point out that this was probably not so much an attempt to thwart eavesdropping, but to mask his location.

Re:Didn't prevent anything

[Skuto]

They found him through a courier. So actually, email did get him killed, sortof.

Re:The Onion Router

[conspirator57]

https://www.torproject.org/about/torusers.html.en#activists

* Human rights activists use Tor to anonymously report abuses from danger zones. Internationally, labor rights workers use Tor and other forms of online and offline anonymity to organize workers in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Even though they are within the law, it does not mean they are safe. Tor provides the ability to avoid persecution while still raising a voice.
        * When groups such as the Friends Service Committee and environmental groups are increasingly falling under surveillance in the United States under laws meant to protect against terrorism, many peaceful agents of change rely on Tor for basic privacy during legitimate activities.
        * Human Rights Watch recommends Tor in their report, “ Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship.” The study co-author interviewed Roger Dingledine, Tor project leader, on Tor use. They cover Tor in the section on how to breach the “Great Firewall of China,” and recommend that human rights workers throughout the globe use Tor for “secure browsing and communications.”
        * Tor has consulted with and volunteered help to Amnesty International's recent corporate responsibility campaign. See also their full report on China Internet issues.
        * Global Voices recommends Tor, especially for anonymous blogging, throughout their web site.
        * In the US, the Supreme Court recently stripped legal protections from government whistleblowers. But whistleblowers working for governmental transparency or corporate accountability can use Tor to seek justice without personal repercussions.
        * A contact of ours who works with a public health nonprofit in Africa reports that his nonprofit must budget 10% to cover various sorts of corruption, mostly bribes and such. When that percentage rises steeply, not only can they not afford the money, but they can not afford to complain — this is the point at which open objection can become dangerous. So his nonprofit has been working to use Tor to safely whistleblow on government corruption in order to continue their work.
        * At a recent conference, a Tor staffer ran into a woman who came from a “company town” in the eastern United States. She was attempting to blog anonymously to rally local residents to urge reform in the company that dominated the town's economic and government affairs. She is fully cognizant that the kind of organizing she was doing could lead to harm or “fatal accidents.”
        * In east Asia, some labor organizers use anonymity to reveal information regarding sweatshops that produce goods for western countries and to organize local labor.
        * Tor can help activists avoid government or corporate censorship that hinders organization. In one such case, a Canadian ISP blocked access to a union website used by their own employees to help organize a strike.

it was funded by both NRL and EFF concurrently. i am not making things up, you are denying reality.