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German NSA Committee May Turn To Typewriters To Stop Leaks
mpicpp (3454017) writes with news that Germany may be joining Russia in a paranoid switch from computers to typewriters for sensitive documents. From the article: Patrick Sensburg, chairman of the German parliament's National Security Agency investigative committee, now says he's considering expanding the use of manual typewriters to carry out his group's work. ... Sensburg said that the committee is taking its operational security very seriously. "In fact, we already have [a typewriter], and it's even a non-electronic typewriter," he said. If Sensburg's suggestion takes flight, the country would be taking a page out of the Russian playbook. Last year, the agency in charge of securing communications from the Kremlin announced that it wanted to spend 486,000 rubles (about $14,800) to buy 20 electric typewriters as a way to avoid digital leaks.
Even if the computers have no network connectivity, their screens and keystrokes may spied on through a Tempest attack by an adversary in the vicinity. Buying typewriters may be cheaper than Tempest shielding.
Re the human factor.
Thats a huge risk in Germany. Generations of post ww2 Germans know nothing but helping the NSA and GCHQ over their decades in every level of the West and later German bureaucracies.
The men and woman who helped the UK and USA post 1950's would have chosen like minded staff to work with them or replace them.
Thats the entire upper structures of vital German security lost to 5+ other Five Eyes countries by default over decades.
Then you have the tame German political leaders watched, dropped, advanced thanks to insider help.
The East Germans got some staff next to generations of top West German political leaders or top NATO staff.
The US and UK got all the communication networks of West Germany and then Germany with the help of cleared Germans.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
If all possible information about what's going on is available to everyone everywhere, then it becomes essentially worthless.
No. I can still single you out and destroy your life with that information. Well funded entities don't even need to single out anyone to take advantage of that flood of information. What seems like vast, insurmountable amounts of data to you is but a challenge to data scientists. Just because you couldn't make use of the information to your advantage doesn't mean nobody else can use it to their advantage, and that is precisely the problem. The small amount of disinformation any individual could sow is easily separated from the ubiquitous sources of accurate information which are beyond the control of the individual.
Not cost effective? You're kidding right?
Even Windows is more secure than humans. Modern viruses and Trojans are relying on social engineering to get themselves installed all the time because it's easier and cheaper to do so than to try to sniff a vulnerability out and shell code your way in.
Hell, we used to joke about the "honor system virus" (where it asks you to do the destruction and send it to 10 of your contacts). Truth be told, it actually is kind of successful these days.
There are still elaborate attacks, but social engineering remains one of the cheapest, most effective ways to get through any security measure.