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Wired Profiles John Brooks, the Programmer Behind Ricochet
wabrandsma writes with this excerpt from Wired: John Brooks, who is just 22 and a self-taught coder who dropped out of school at 13, was always concerned about privacy and civil liberties. Four years ago he began work on a program for encrypted instant messaging that uses Tor hidden services for the protected transmission of communications. The program, which he dubbed Ricochet, began as a hobby. But by the time he finished, he had a full-fledged desktop client that was easy to use, offered anonymity and encryption, and even resolved the issue of metadata—the "to" and "from" headers and IP addresses spy agencies use to identify and track communications—long before the public was aware that the NSA was routinely collecting metadata in bulk for its spy programs. The only problem Brooks had with the program was that few people were interested in using it. Although he'd made Ricochet's code open source, Brooks never had it formally audited for security and did nothing to promote it, so few people even knew about it.
Then the Snowden leaks happened and metadata made headlines. Brooks realized he already had a solution that resolved a problem everyone else was suddenly scrambling to fix. Though ordinary encrypted email and instant messaging protect the contents of communications, metadata allows authorities to map relationships between communicants and subpoena service providers for subscriber information that can help unmask whistleblowers, journalists's sources and others.
Then the Snowden leaks happened and metadata made headlines. Brooks realized he already had a solution that resolved a problem everyone else was suddenly scrambling to fix. Though ordinary encrypted email and instant messaging protect the contents of communications, metadata allows authorities to map relationships between communicants and subpoena service providers for subscriber information that can help unmask whistleblowers, journalists's sources and others.
Any software developer working in the United States on secure communications can too easily be compromised with an NSL. If you want your project to be trustworthy, not only does it need to be rigorously audited, but all developers and hosting should be based outside the US as well.
“John writes good code, so we’re not expecting a horror show,” Gray says.
Golly. Good for John.
That's a different project. This one is written in C++ and it uses Qt for the GUI: https://github.com/ricochet-im...
How exactly do you solve the problem of metadata on TCP/IP networks? Metadata is how these networks operate.
Every packet has an origin that will be traceable to the source ISP. If you're on your own connection, you're fucked.
If you're on your own connection and you VPN to some other connection it's just a matter of how much effort the powers that be want to waste tracking you down. Any schlub can run a Tor node, so you get nothing there. And of course, you have to initiate that connection from somewhere.
The only way to truly hide is to use someone else's connection (without their knowledge), with a different spoofed MAC every time. Everything else is just obfuscation. We already know every fucking packet touching a major telecom is logged in the US, and we have damned good reason to believe it's true world-wide.
Wow. That's nothing to be proud of. Here's hoping he goes back to finish up, and before he gets too old. Outside of book learning, there's a lot to be said for the social development one makes in high school and college.
I thought maybe he was the guy behind the Half-Life mod Ricochet.
How did dude drop out of school at age 13 when education is compulsory to age 16? I wish the story had explained that detail. What country is this dude a citizen of?
The evil people in the world would like to thank him for making it easier to get around communication issues.
The civil libertarians have no answer on how to prevent criminals and evil people from using technology against us. Yet, they claim that the 'government' is the problem and present no solutions to the problem except for these programs that you never are sure about.
The good people in the world would like to thank him for making it easier to communicate freely and privately.
The network logging spy machine itself has no answer on how to prevent criminals and evil people from using technology against us. They just want to do it themselves more easily.
Enterprising misanthropes will always be able to find a way, no matter how thick PRISM and it's ilk are layed on, to harm others. No matter what. You can't change that with any budget, or any quantity of draconian tactics. Motivated humans are too creative to be stopped entirely from pursuing particular goals effectively, unless all humans are stopped from pursuing independent goals effectively.
Instead of launching witch hunts for dangerous misanthropes, let's instead address and ameliorate the conditions that cause violent misanthropy. Humans are dangerous primarily when their basic needs are unmet, especially related to essential financial and social well-being.
The solution to terror and troublemaking is to provide a guaranteed basic income for _all_ people, and universal access to free speech and social media.
In these conditions basic needs are met, and justice can be crowdsourced organically via free engagement with social media. No one would have essential reasons to harm others, and the economy would flourish as millions of creatives become free to find ways to contribute in any way that inspires them, and to focus on what they themselves believe would be most useful to themselves and others.
The countries that do this will lead the world in happiness and economic measures in the coming decades, and likely centuries. They will not be sources of significant strife and terror. There is a growing trail of global evidence to support the effectiveness of these claims, as more and more areas run pilot or nationalized programs along these lines.
Let's create this!
I was thinking about the epic ego platform shooter based on Goldsrc
..
Stefantalpalaru writes:
That's a different project. This one is written in C++ and it uses Qt for the GUI
Which is why John is doing work for Jolla.
Am looking forward to Richochet appearing on my favourite, very open and secure, full featured smart phone.