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FBI Considers CALEA II: Mandatory Wiretapping On Every Device
Techmeology writes "In response to declining utility of CALEA mandated wiretapping backdoors due to more widespread use of cryptography, the FBI is considering a revamped version that would mandate wiretapping facilities in end users' computers and software. Critics have argued that this would be bad for security (PDF), as such systems must be more complex and thus harder to secure. CALEA has also enabled criminals to wiretap conversations by hacking the infrastructure used by the authorities. I wonder how this could ever be implemented in FOSS."
Given how well the intelligence agencies have 'protected' us these last two decades...
Isn't it time to get rid of these assholes? Or at least save some money on our fake no help agencies?
You could cut half of the people at the FBI, CIA, NSA, DHS, FEMA, TSA, DOD, And several others i can't think of...
And we wouldn't notice any difference at all. None..
This is where a true police state begins. An ear and eye in every device. Wake up before it's too late.
Never allow laziness of police forces to erode your civil liberties and freedoms.
I wonder how this could ever be implemented in FOSS.
The same way anything is implemented in FOSS. It'll be written into the source. Lots of people will modify the code to disable the backdoors. People will post versions of the software with the backdoors missing, many of which actually still have them or have different backdoors installed. Governments may lead an automated search for software without the backdoors, or may simply ignore it uniless they have a reason to target the individual using it.
In other words, what a fucking mess.
Why is the FBI considering anything? Isn't something like this in the realm of the elected politician?
We had this argument years ago when they were talking about putting encryption engines in everybody's phones, but they'd have back door keys and NOBODY WANTED ONE. They still won't. All this will do if passed is prevent anybody from buying a new phone until they have a method in hand to turn off or change the back-door codes so nobody can hack them.
Why do critics need to argue anything? A simple no, get lost, should suffice. You don't need reasons to refuse law enforcement access to your communications, they need reasons to access them in the first place.
This is such a wildly inappropriate idea that if it gets any legs at all the reasonable powers that be will jump on it and squash it good.
I cannot allow myself to believe we as a country are willing to seriously consider implementation of anything like this.
Wow, you're quite the coward.
it is literally impossible to implement, the FBI is losing its war against the worlds populations which it considers are terrorist suspects, you, me, and averyone else in the whole planet, let them cry all they want, we all know they will never achieve it but for those of you located in the land of your laws, harras or fire your politicians out of those jobs and put new ones that know what they are doing, or else, become slaves in the new era of the nazi state modern usa, where you need you papers with you to make sure you are not deported to another country that you have never been to
Otherwise I have to oppose the idea entirely.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
If this were implemented it would just encourage people to adopt higher-level protocols, encryption is one but also speaking in coded messages ("The weather is nice in the Black Sea this time of year, Alexei") and replayed/automated versions of the same.
I think having these wiretap backdoors is a worth the tradeoff of my liberty in favor of a better and safer world.
And Thomas Jefferson continues to spin aces in his grave.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
If this passes, do people think the US will get special "US chipped" networked devices made in China and then cheaper units for the rest of the world?
The US will lobby the world to ensue a level export market for its expensive compliant hardware.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
And what about the scammers that will be using this back door to control you phone and run up your bills. Is this the cost you are willing to pay, literally? How about just having the evildoers put in jail with less strict requirements on what the evidence needs to be ... like maybe catching them in the act.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
What problem do you see with open source software? If there is a legal requirement that software behaves in certain ways, then that is independent of whether it is open source or not. The only difference is that with open source, you might be able to veryify that the mandated behaviour is there.
Of course, open source software that behaves according to some law can be modified by anyone with the source code and the necessary expertise to break that law. If creating such software is illegal, then the person doing it would do something illegal. But that has nothing to do really with open source.
I'm really saddened and angered by the continuous erosion of our civil liberties. I've seen this decline for a while 9/11, but it keeps getting worse & worse. And sadly, it really seems to be independent of the party in power. Total government overreach.
Or quite the troll.
"I wonder how this could ever be implemented in FOSS"
How many phones have a completely FOSS operating system????
Nice back door on your device there, shame if someone put something on there that would incriminate you for something you didn't do. Oh but you feel safer right?
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
The problem is once you start mapping drug dealers, terrorists, pedophile and assorted evildoers some strange stuff starts happening.
The real evil people go dark understanding they have to change methods quickly, tipped of by tame experts and corrupt officers.
Support for 'freedom fighters' by the CIA becomes tricky.
Local courts are flooded with telco intercept cases and slowly most people of interest work out a phone, VoIP, computer, nav system is not so healthy to have around.
Thats why the GCHQ and NSA hate press like this. Now the FBI sees good PR, fame, new budgets and all the new hardware to roll out.
Easy cases at first with tracking, recoding via a remote turned on phone, key loggers in any consumer OS.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Why is the parent comment rated -1? You might not agree with it but that is not a valid reason for moderating it down. It is on topic opinion, not flamebait or troll.
This is censorship, plain and simple. I see how how moderation is used to enforce the groupthink here. Shame, for shame.
how exactly would they be able to get that data off a device they have bugged? surely any IT expert would see traffic going to a certain direction and block the hell out of it?! Not a very smart idea. They must think we are all idiots. I think any proposal to install bugging software into devices is yet another weak effort from the fascists who are slowly losing their grip on power. weak.
Here is news for you: "evildoers" will basically not be affected, as they will just work around these devices. It is ordinary citizens that are the target, as they do not have this opportunity. "Evildoers" will just experience a slight increase in the effort needed to do business. ON the other hand, this will create a nice set of possibilities to extort said normal citizens (sheep as yourself).
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple ALREADY have open doors for FBI. About the only clean system will be the OSS, and even then, it is NOT guaranteed unless you have the OSS bios.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I like how you think an opinion that you don't agree with is a troll. You must be quite the debater.
As non-American I am also very much in favour - this should be huge boost for IT sector everywhere outside US.
even if it passes, encryption+obfuscation without backdoors will always exist
Have gnu, will travel.
Once upon the brans it froloked og pilogonof funky jamjam pills. To you, I salort!
Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
dear FBI,
a certain portion of your managament are stupid douchebags.
while there are agents risking their lives to stop criminals, you are sitting around jerking off on a whiteboard about pie in the sky bullshit that nobody with two nickels worth of brains would find useful or even interesting
fuck you, fuck your mother, and fuck everything you stand for.
Wow! You probably don't know this, but depending on which U.S state you're in, depending on how
you express your love to your legally married wife/husband, you could be engaging in a felony.
Yupper, many of those "laws" of behaviour are still on the books and though not currently enforced,
you could be in serious do-do if you're caught.
Allowing something like that on a device is just plain stupid.
CAPTCHA = 'reform', it getting close to that time!
and only one of them is under the jurisdiction of the FBI.
meanwhiel, most FOSS is developed cross border by people in various locations
you mean the CIA and the Catholic Church?
The US is fast becoming a good place to be from.
As in : "I used to live there".
they will pry my info out of my cold dead slackware box and my firewall. Rosta Ruck. have atter. please. this is unreal
I think having these wiretap backdoors is a worth the tradeoff of my liberty in favor of a better and safer world
I think that most of us would also gladly trade your liberty for a better and safer world, since that would kill two birds with one stome. :-)
Ezekiel 23:20
The most you can hope for is a civil suit. The process and any penalties will be paid by tax dollars to the reporters.
Its over. The entire justification for when we STOLE the states from the king of England was that we were going to live system where the people govern themselves.
But thats over now:
1. The ratio of citizen to congress critter has risen steadily so that they can walk or run away from their constituents
2. The function of the Senate has drastically changed and more decisions are made there, further eroding the power of popular vote. 2 per state/6yr terms
3. The things we used to laugh at the Russian people for: Corrupt press, Corrupt travel restrictions, Reading Mail, Wiretapping, corrupt law enforcement are all S.O.P for our government now.
4. We used to laugh at the Russians for electing their leaders. Both candidates came from the same party and there was no real choice. Which is what we have here now.
5., We used to laugh at the Russians for infiltrating and subverting democracy groups. Thats what we do here now.
6. We used to laugh at the fact that no one there "owned" anything. With the value of everything here based on an arbitrary currency, it essentially the same thing.
7 There is a defacto get-out-of jail free card for every president in office or after term.
I have worked with the people who "watch over us". They are relentlessly dishonest and always convinced they are right. And they have only one lens to view anything: us vs them. And once you are 'them", they have no morality at all.
Try to enjoy your life. Try not to have kids.
That is a reprehensible idea. Rooting for the subjugation of others for.personal gain. Disgusting.
But all internet traffic is more than likely already monitered and filtered for keywords and word associations. All the FBI is really asking is basically to make it all very legal and a bit more convenient.
Technically, unless you are doing something illegal, it wouldn't matter at this point if your software apps were reporting your activities.
I don't think this is a good thing where drug dealers, terrorists, pedophile and assorted evildoers can commit their nefarious activities without impunity.
Would you prefer that they commit their nefarious activities with impunity?
It is disgusting. Yes indeed, however the US of A have been doing it to other nations for quite a while. Karma...
"I wonder how this could ever be implemented in FOSS"
Ask the W3C how they are going to pull of DRM in FOSS. Different problems but they have a lot of issues in common and neither will solve enough of them.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
I think he's just a bit too optimistic. Surely no one is idiotic and naive enough to trust the government with so much power? Sadly, such people do exist.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
..mandate wiretapping facilities in end users' computers and software
And "FUCK YOU" are those two words. I'd also like to add "Eat shit and die", and furthermore "Die in a fire". This shit has got to stop, now!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
What are you going to do about it, punk boy.
Whine? You tell others to go and be burned alive in a fire, you think said others are going to willingly walk into a fire.
I don't believe the ordinary citizens are the actual target. I believe that law enforcement is more or less interested in "the evildoers" and not Aunt Mable's recipe chat. But the unintended consequences are exactly what you detail. The really bad guys work around the barrier, and more lesser crimes gum up the works. We as a society want the worst criminals to be the ones that are most likely to be stopped and/or punished. But people aren't perfect, and what seems good on paper has unintended consequences. I agree with you on what the effect will be, just not the motivation.
Hey, guess what, some of us HATE your government religion (laws) and do not study nor intend to abide by the demands of it.
We of other religions have everything to fear. We hate your religion and your enforcers and do not want it touching us.
"Try not to have kids."
I wish I wasn't born, that's for shure. Every thing one would want to do is forbidden. I hate this country. I hate it's religion (the laws etc).
Why would FOSS obey fucker?
FOSS does not obey encryption rules, dmca rules, etc.
FUCK your religion.
You DO control us, but we HATE you.
Do you see widespread use of cellphones and tablets running on FOSS? I don't so no worries there, the feds won't have much problem.
But Android is FOSS!. Hear you buddy, dream on. Even if you have the skills to compile Android from scratch, don't need any closed drivers and can manage to install it on your cellphone... even then you're just a few in a billion users market. For all practical purposes there is no FOSS getting in between the feds/govt and your privacy.
none
Deuteronomy 22 28-29 allows pedophiles (read the hebrew).
Also see 2 samual 12. (little lamb)
Deuteronomy also says to kill those who entice you to follow an other ruler/judge/god.
Like people who say follow the government religion rather than Deut.
The God of the old testament will give you nice sweet young girls who love you.
The god that is this government prevents you and punishes you for everything good for you.
The rest of us will be stuck with insecure backdoor platforms that criminals can easily exploit.
I find it fascinating how many people think that this is inappropriate and not feasible, while at the same time supporting gun control and the war on drugs.
You forgot the NRO. Everyone forgets NRO, which is just the way they like it. I could tell you stories about them but you would not believe me, even if I posted non-anonymously.
It will not work against specifically bad people, that with a bit of research could avoid that kind of snooping. Will go against the "normal" people, just in case the kool-aid effect diminishes in big numbers in front of massive evidence of systematic government wrongdoing.,
Yet another unneeded government intrusion into our lives. Why would Congress even consider such a plan when the Dept of Injustice already flaunts the law by telling their goons they don't need warrants even though the courts say they do [[http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/05/08/1843234/us-doj-say-they-dont-need-warrants-for-e-mail-chats]].
The Justice Department's disinclination to seek warrants for private files stored on the servers of companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft continued even after a federal appeals court in 2010 ruled that warrantless access to e-mail violates the Fourth Amendment. A previously unreleased version of an FBI manual (PDF), last updated two-and-a-half years after the appellate ruling, says field agents "may subpoena" e-mail records from companies "without running afoul of" the Fourth Amendment.
Besides, why does the FBI need to put eyes & ears into every device when they already record every conversation for posterity? [[http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/05/05/2329240/former-fbi-agent-all-digital-communications-stored-by-us-govt]]. This sounds like a way to surreptitiously record all face-to-face conversations as well as electronic ones. Looks like Orwell was 30 years too early.
I wouldn't put too much trust in Congress for any accountability.
Remember the TARP bailout? The one that gave the Federal Reserve unlimited power in giving out money to banks foreign and domestic?
That bill was only a few pages long, and some congress members didn't even read it before they signed it
Or flamebait. The difference between the two can be pretty subtle. Anyway, here is your proof:
"...without impunity."
Citation fucking needed. Drug dealing is much lower than it was in the 70s and 80s. Successful terrorists haven't used cryptographic methods to coordinate their activities. And pedophiles are captured every day thanks to the false security of these tools, which don't work if you don't fully understand them and in any case can never protect you in the offline world. In all of these areas, the false security of cryptography has proved to be a fabulous tool for setting up stings.
It's not an "on topic opinion" to casually claim that something is needed because people are committing crimes "with impunity" and claiming that we currently have "no solution" for this supposed problem. There is no problem. The crimes mentioned have had a negative correlation with the availability of cryptography.
Thus, troll.
My comment was not for scum like you. My comment was for others that may not tell the difference.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
To have the possiblity of secure communications, I suggest buying a recently manufactured PC with VTx and VTd/IOMMU capabilities and get used to running a minimally exploitable OS on it.
For portable devices, I recommend something that can have all the firmware flashed to something like Android or Firefox OS, has a removable battery, and no cellular radio. Also, re-flash on a regular basis.
If you don't already have it enabled as a cipher on the web sites and servers you control please do so immediately.
4 coders remember kids U need 2 set a key or these ciphers will not work.
fuck_the_fbi_police_state=EC_KEY_new_by_curve_name(NID_X9_62_prime256v1);
SSL_CTX_set_tmp_ecdh(ctx, fuck_the_fbi_police_state);
EC_KEY_free(fuck_the_fbi_police_state);
How about a "Privacy-Reqiurement In Principle Act", mandating that all devices should be secured to protect the user's privacy so that EVEN Law enforcement cannot ever get access. Backdooring should be a criminal offense, as should excess logging, and facilitating wiretapping. Product safety laws should be updated to treat software vulnerabilities the same way as toxic components.
Then instead of going around with the fantasy that law enforcement can fix problems, politicians might devote some more energy to fixing the underlying causes (such as foreign policies that cause "blowback" and the war on drugs). It will also make the country much safer against "cyber war".
Completely agree. Evil doers like Aaron Swartz and Cody Wilson are the only ones that they will be motivated to use this on.
I agree. At this time. Maybe. But surveillance possibilities are always extended once the infrastructure is in place. Juts look at the DDR where they has a significant percentage of the population under observation. Or at China, where the local Skype client scans for keywords. However, even proposing something like that is either utterly evil (if the ones proposing this know history) or utterly stupid (if the ones proposing this have not even considered the risks). Both are severe dangers to free societies and people that propose things like this are unfit to have power of any kind.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Watergate whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg:
“Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, might take bittersweet satisfaction to know that he was not the last smart president to prolong unjustifiably a senseless, unwinnable war, at great cost in human life. (And his aide Henry Kissinger was not the last American official to win an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize.)
He would probably also feel vindicated (and envious) that ALL the crimes he committed against me–which forced his resignation facing impeachment–are now legal.
That includes burglarizing my former psychoanalyst’s office (for material to blackmail me into silence), warrantless wiretapping, using the CIA against an American citizen in the US, and authorizing a White House hit squad to “incapacitate me totally” (on the steps of the Capitol on May 3, 1971). All the above were to prevent me from exposing guilty secrets of his own administration that went beyond the Pentagon Papers. But under George W. Bush and Barack Obama,with the PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendment Act, and (for the hit squad) President Obama’s executive orders. they have all become legal.
http://www.juancole.com/2011/06/ellsberg-all-nixons-crimes-against-me-now-legal.html
You do understand that lots of companies will distribute the same devices in other countries, perhaps with the wiretapping capability "disabled"?
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
There are two kinds of "evildoers". There are also those who do it illegally and sometimes go to prison, but then there are also those who do it legally. That class of evildoers usually works for the government or in some cases for big corporations such as Monsanto.
A sufficiently advanced simulation is indistinguishable from reality.
Free storage space for all tech-savy persons! 100% liability-free!
Indeed. And the latter kind always seeks to extend their powers and to transform "the law" into whatever benefits them. Seems they are succeeding.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
So two wrongs make a right? +2? Slashdot logic fail.
Propose something that violates 5 amendment rights and every other right, to deflect from a different set of laws that are just as bed, but look better than this.
What is worse? You dumb fucks will fall for it.
URP DURP One guy did this thing and he's American, so... URP DURP
Houston, we have a Genius...
--"You are your own God"--
That's the point. American companies losing every public contract abroad, because nobody believes their claims of disabled wiretapping.
What you call a crime, I call a perfectly acceptable pleasure to engage in.
Who is WE you piece of shit?
Whether your software of choice is commercial or open-source, if it is produced by any form of significant entity, it WILL have NSA back-doors.
You can only be (relatively) safe if you use use own, proprietary methods for security. That doesn't mean writing all your own software, of course- but it does mean implementing systems and policies that are NOT off-the-shelf.
This story is a standard BLACK PROPAGANDA ploy by the NSA. The betas are told that the FBI is demanding wire-tapping in all their equipment, to reinforce the idea that it isn't already there. When the betas see certain politicians 'defeat' these outrageous demands, the betas are supposed to go back to sleep, reassured that all is right with the world.
In the real world, you are forced to experience the inconvenience of constant updates to Windows, Java, Flash etc., as current NSA back-doors are discovered and exploited in the wider community, so new back-doors need to be crafted by Microsoft et al, and installed on users' computers.
What you call crimes various religions of the ancient world (including ancient hebrewism) have no problems with.
They must obey you because you have the force.
I hope they do something to you and yours to change that.
that's easy. if u FOSS developer lives in said backdoor mandating country they will ...
be coerced to "accidentally" add a "bug" otherwise known as a zero-day...or else
everybody in said apparatus will know you personally, that is the guy checking for wrong parking,
drinkable liquids in carry-on, maybe even they insurance guy, heck maybe even they pizza delivery guy
It's thanks to the brave people of the FBI and the DHS that our children can walk to school safely and so that we can wait at home for them, content in the assurance that they will not be kidnapped or terrorized by radical religious fundamentalists. If these agencies want to mandate embedded keyloggers, remote recording, and video monitoring software inside our personal telephones, laptops, I say we need to let th.... oh God, HaHAHAHA I can't go on. It's just so completely ridiculous. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Robert Mueller actually wipes his ass with taxpayer-purchased custom-printed toilet paper featuring a constutional amendment on each sheet. Ahh, there we go: http://www.flickr.com/photos/supak/1926335519/
How about we disband the Dept of Homeland Security and the TSA, make every FBI agent accountable with each one keeping a mandatory diary of their daily activity that can be audited by any US citizen on demand, and start throwing corporate bribery agents - er, lobbyists - into prison to restore ownership of our government to its citizens? Others have suggested lobbying our legislators to make backdooring or deliberately weakening any cryptosystem for the purpose of defeating it against the will of its purchaser a criminal offense. Where do I sign?
Sure it was. Just stop it now please, I've bitchsmacked you twice now, and now I am starting to feel sorry for you. It feels like beating up a retarded kid.
The desire to know everything that can be possibly known goes back to the deception that was propagated way back in the Garden of Eden, "You shall be as God....". God alone knows all the thoughts and motivations of people and everything else that can be known. One reason that people get into government is that they can have power over other people. If governments, all governments, had their way and it was technically feasible, they would install a mandatory thought transmitting chip in everybody's head. Thousands of years before it was remotely possible, it was prophesied in the Bible that there would be a time when there would be a one world government under which no one would be allowed to buy or sell, without some sort of unique identifier, often referred to as the "mark of the beast". This FBI proposal is another step in that direction. Try and get a job without a Social Security number, rent a car without a credit card, or get a passport so you can even visit our neighbors in Canada. We are well on our way to have this and other prophecies of the end of days come to pass.
A sufficiently advanced simulation is indistinguishable from reality.
Wait, we had that one already. No wait, we fought that one already.
It was "the jews are our misfortune" at that point of time, but we get the scapegoats from the Near East either way.
What about non-American companies that want to sell their products in the U.S.? Do you really think they will give up the U.S. market? And do you really think they will go to the effort of building one product for the U.S. market and another one for other markets? Oh some might build a model for none U.S. markets with the wiretapping features disabled (with instructions provided to the relevant governments about how to re-enable them when they desire) and a few might build a non-U.S. model without the feature. But most will build it with the feature "disabled" in software, also with instructions given to the relevant governments about how to turn it back on.
The biggest problem that the FBI is not thinking about is that THEIR equipment will also have this built in, meaning that the bad guys will be able to tap them.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Did the CIA need to rely on scotus or ask permission from congress before its recent militarization culminating in the drone program?
The idea that the executive branch even follows rule of law any more is entirely obsolete.
The FBI now has to tap everyone because of Bitcoin.
I mean just because you don't like the idea it doesn't mean they can't do it in a classified fashion and then make it legal years later.
You are Bob Dylan AICMFP.
Look who financed hitler, where the Nazi's went after the war (Hint the country's name starts with United States) and who's in power (descendants of those who financed hitler)
When you move Nazi's and their ilk from one country to a new country it means the new country will be Nazi's in the end as well, Starting with their highly developed propaganda and min control machine.
Stop relying on fake / phony (ie FBI created) arrests to boost your numbers.
Stop relying on illegal search and seizure.
Get off your asses and do some real investigating, of real crooks.
You know, the kind where people kill other people, or steal loads of money from banks, or kidnap people.
Stop trying to incite terrorism by twisting people's minds until you can make an arrest.
Stop fucking around with people who wouldn't do anything if the ideas weren't implanted, pushed, shoved and the wherewithal to complete the acts provided by the thugs (FBI agents). All that does is make the FBI agents criminals - every one of you who aided and abeted, or were co-conspirators in your little charades should spent triple time in prison as the people you coerced into acting.
You're acting as terrorists, and now you want more power to illegally search people's private information? I think not.
Anyone of you who does shall be sent to gitmo, where the current prisoners should be given the guns and torture implements to use on you terrorists as they see fit.
See how you like it assholes.
White House Petition
Requiring software vendors to build intercept functionality into their products is unwise and will be ineffective, with the result being serious consequences for the economic well being and national security of the United States. See https://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/CALEAII-techreport.pdf for more details. http://wh.gov/Skyk Please go to link and sign,
Mod parent up.
-=Lothsahn=-
yeah, they would build two products. not to mention there's plenty of telecoms& computers companies which do next to nothing business in the usa. just complying with the wiretapping capabilities would be a huge hassle.
also, I don't think the fbi thought it quite through how their backdoor would work even in theory and how they would handle the infrastructure for it so that not just anyone could tap into the backdoor.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Why would they build two products when most governments would be happy to have a backdoor into people's electronics (especially when they thought they could claim they thought it was disabled if people found out about it)?
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
My petition as well
How many PC's ya got at home? 2 will do.
* Keep one offline at all limes; no ethernet cable or wifi or whatever
* Encrypt/decrypt your messages on that one
* Copy encrypted message to USB stick
* Move USB stick to your "regular" online computer
* Send message via regular online computer
* Recipient copies encrypted message to a USB stick
* Moves USB stick to their offline computer and decrypts there
Net result; internet-connected computers never see the unencrypted message. Yes, Joe Blow cheating on his wife might not bother, but you can rest assured that mobsters and terrorists will take that extra step. How could the FBI be so braindead as to not think of this?
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
FTA:
Many of todayâ(TM)s communication tools are open source, and there is no way to hide a capability within an open source code base
Which, sadly, is all the justification they'll need to make open software illegal - or if not, equivalent to having "terrorist materials" on your computer.
And why, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, would the accused have hacking tools (read: Linux) on his computer if he *didn't* intend to hide his activies from the government?
If they can't make OS illegal outright, they'll make it a secondary offense, for example, obstruction of justice, or similar. The only ones using it would be those who could make a good case in front of a jury that it was *necessary* - i.e. engineers, sys admins, etc...
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Pathetic. The reason your statement does sound serious is because you cannot care either way. Here is a hint: You are not a toll, you are a psychopath. Better get help.
Here is another hint: You cannot "bitchsmack" anybody while hiding behind anonymity. A pathetic and cowardly attempt like that will never commandeer any respect. But I can understand that you have trouble grasping that.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I'm sorry I have NO trust in the CIA, FBI or any government agency. We need to add a petition to protect our privacy.
HEY! If that guy really is suicidal you are committing a crime, you jerk.
You don't have to egg him on. There are plenty of geeks on this board who have been bullied in school and thought of killing themselves at one point or another in their lives. The ones who didn't follow through on it (almost all of them) did so because they came to their senses and found a reason to continue, before they met some total asshole like YOU.
(You may fuck off and die now)
Don't listen to the asshole below and have as many kids as you like. They will likely be sensitive and intelligent, and contribute greatly to the world of the 21st century. It is also allowed to live in another country, there are a lot of them.
They are assuming they can make hardware behave as they will. What about the hardware not being connected to the internet builds a list of whatever commands were executed and automatically copies over to any peripherals which is then automatically transferred by "online" hardware.
In the end you would need (probably criminalized) hardware-labs to build your own hardware to fight this, I'm afraid.
so my initial idea six years ago to move to china, out of europe and not to the u.s. still seems to make sense
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
The biggest issue at hand here is that these agencies and the government see it as law enforcement's "right" to be able to tap your communications, when in fact, the only reason tapping was ever used in the first place was because the technology was inherently insecure. I see no reason to enable their power trip by prohibiting one from intentionally protecting one's data and information use (the kind of thing the Fourth Amendment is specifically designed to protect) from the start.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Uh-huh.
Now go research how Stuxnet propagated. I'll wait... Try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet#Windows_infection
Read that sectiion thoroughly, including the propagation vectors? Good.
Now rethink how your 'clean' machine receives its' encrypted messages to decrypt.
Now rethink that if your 'clean' machine is *never* connected to the Internet, how does it receive security updates to patch vulnerabilities that a virus communicated via USB might exploit.
Now rethink that if one goes to the trouble to marksman-target Siemens SCADA systems, one might well get a virus which compromises the 'clean' machine via USB, puts the text back on the USB, and hail-mary's that on the compromised 'dirty' machine to send a copy to yonder Federal system.
But with a backdoored system, it doesn't even take that... Were a backdoor system in place, maybe all that little extra code on the USB does is trips the backdoor on your 'clean' machine and dumps the interesting content to the USB to be pulled.
Fantastic? Possibly. But consider that your "air gap" has to be on both ends of the connection, and the real point of this was to illustrate that using an offline storage medium as a gap is ***not*** "air" gap at all. An "air gap" would be you print out the gibberish, walk it to your clean machine, type in all the gibberish to decode the message. Create message, hand copy the encrypted text to paper, take it to your dirty machine and type it in.
Now that's secure... until a Technical Agent of the FBI comes in on a Patriot Act sneak-and-peek and compromises your 'clean' machine.