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Pakistan Bans Encryption
An anonymous reader writes "After some rumors of this last month, Pakistan has now officially told all of the country's ISPs that they need to block all encrypted VPNs since content running over such services cannot be monitored by the government."
Amid all these internet-blocking stories I still haven't found an answer to how dictators prevent satellite internet connections, or even if they do. I know how they could block them if they wanted to, but does anyone know how they actually do it? Or if they even bother with it?
They won't have anymore telecommuters. One of our workers awhile back was resident in pakistan. No way are we going to let our data over the wire in the clear, so we can't hire from there anymore.
And don't forget ye olde Tunnel Over DNS!
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Because if they can break it they know eventually someone else WILL break it and so everything the government, the military, and the US private sector has protected with AES will be available to agents of countries hostile to the US national interest, and so they would be starting the hunt for the next standard encryption algorithm to be used for those purposes. Remember that the NSA made changes to the S-box of DES specifically to avoid attacks by methods that were not rediscovered in the general cryptography community for nearly 30 years. That change kept 3DES secure for another 5-7 years allowing them to proceed with the AES selection process. Despite what so many people think the NSA's first mission is to protect the integrity of the secrets of the US.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
With me, encryption isn't for the cops (any decent police force has a crapload of methods to obtain data, up to and including the old fashioned rubber hose). It is to lock out intruders, potential hacks, people who would maliciously alter data in flight, and people who are collecting information they have no right to. This is why I use a VPN service.
For example, when using a Wi-Fi network, it isn't uncommon for some WISPs to intercept the data stream to do ads, log all DNS requests and URLs transferred for data mining purposes, or even insert a Web frame in a HTTP stream with their crap on it. Firing up a VPN (TLS based or PPTP) keeps them out of my business. Same with some ISPs. Why should I allow an ISP to make cash from my Web browsing from a Phorm like server, unless I get a discount on my service? Then there are attacks like FireSheep (although that specific one is mitigated by a constant SSL connection).
Having a VPN is just the same thing as locking and arming a car alarm, or throwing a deadbolt before going to sleep. It is to keep thieves at bay.