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Snowden Documents Show How Well NSA Codebreakers Can Pry
Der Spiegel has published today an excellent summary of what some of Edward Snowden's revelations show about the difficulty (or, generally, ease) with which the NSA and collaborating intelligence services can track, decrypt, and correlate different means of online communication. An interesting slice: The NSA and its allies routinely intercept [HTTPS] connections -- by the millions. According to an NSA document, the agency intended to crack 10 million intercepted https connections a day by late 2012. The intelligence services are particularly interested in the moment when a user types his or her password. By the end of 2012, the system was supposed to be able to "detect the presence of at least 100 password based encryption applications" in each instance some 20,000 times a month.
For its part, Britain's GCHQ collects information about encryption using the TLS and SSL protocols -- the protocols https connections are encrypted with -- in a database called "FLYING PIG." The British spies produce weekly "trends reports" to catalog which services use the most SSL connections and save details about those connections. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail, Yahoo and Apple's iCloud service top the charts, and the number of catalogued SSL connections for one week is in the many billions -- for the top 40 sites alone. ...
The NSA also has a program with which it claims it can sometimes decrypt the Secure Shell protocol (SSH). This is typically used by systems administrators to log into employees' computers remotely, largely for use in the infrastructure of businesses, core Internet routers and other similarly important systems. The NSA combines the data collected in this manner with other information to leverage access to important systems of interest.
this is truly disgusting
Some people care, and you should care, since the information can and will be used to your detriment any time there is profit in it.
Snowden did us a favor. We owe him one in return.
Bring Snowden Home
Sign it.
Before we all get too hysterical, from the article itself:
In other words, the NSA, GCHQ and other intelligence services are probably only able to crack badly configured or unpatched and badly out of date systems. That doesn't stop them from using out of band vulnerabilities like hacking into someone's PC or forcing some online service to open up the decrypted data, but it seems likely that if you have a well-managed cert chain and your systems are kept up to date and patched, the odds of anyone, government or otherwise, busting into your encrypted data seems pretty low.
My big fear out of all this isn't the unlikely hacking of mainstream encryption schemes, but rather that those that do use encryption may end up being targets of other methods; like malware, to get at their critical data.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
So that if anyone becomes a threat, it's easy to find a law they've broken, something embarrassing about them, or whatever. For most people, it is of no consequence. But for the very few who try to rock the status quo, this'll ensure they can't.
Richelieu said, "Give me six lines written by an honest man, and I will find something in it with which to hang him." Well, this just makes sure that the six lines have been collected in advance.
It's time to stop sending keys using dumb methods. Time to start generating keys and physically swapping/installing them.
Unfortunately these days not having a FB account means you are missing out in your social life.
No, it doesn't. For instance, you could always hang out with people not dumb enough to use Facebook, or reject 'social' nonsense. Or, you know, actually hang out with people if for some reason you actually want to be a social tool.
The authenticity of host '...' can't be established. RSA key fingerprint is .... Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
That's ssh letting you know that a man-in-the-middle attack could be successfully launched at you, and decrypt all your communication.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Maybe live thousands miles away from your friends and family. Maybe your friends and family do not share the same principles like you do.
Who gives a shit what they do? You think being "social" is about reading petty nonsense that they post online, and perhaps responding? I don't think that's socialization at all. If I was a "social" person, I would just do it the old fashioned way: Find some decent people to hang out with in real life. If my family lived too far away, too fucking bad; I don't need to know about them. Maybe you could even occasionally use something called a phone or send a letter. No, that's simply impossible; you need to know every thought that pops into their heads.
Like it or not social networking is an amazing way to keep in touch and follow peoples life.
That's worthless, especially for actual nerds. And all you'll get is useless information.
It seems that too many people readily sacrifice everything for convenience.
Unfortunately these days not having a FB account means you are missing out in your social life. It has become the de facto for keeping in touch with friends and family.
The above is utter bullshit.
I have friends in five different countries and none of us use Facebook.
I maintain contact with my family using communications which have nothing
to do with Facebook.
Not everyone is as stupid as you so obviously are ( making blanket statements
which claim that Facebook is somehow necessary for having a social life is proof
of your stupidity ).
#1 financial information
#2 any idea they want to steal
#3 retroactive imprisonment, yeah it's not a crime today but tomorrow it is and they have all the evidence.
Remember who they share this info with.
That is actually just the start. I'll be happy to give some more examples:
1: A DA going on a fishing expedition. That data, plus parallel construction, plus civil asset forfeiture ensures that they will have a packed jail and prison system, ensuring the campaign donations from private prison corporations keep on coming. Remember: 48 states have signed an agreement with Corrections Corporations of America to keep their jails at 90% bed space or else face fines hourly.
2: Lawsuits. People may have forgotten the MPAA and RIAA lawsuits, suing people for millions. It wouldn't take much for copyright law to be amended, forcing people to have to "prove" ownership of IP, just as businesses have to cough up proof when the BSA guy comes around, or else the BSA guy will be back with the constable and lawyers with a motion of discovery. Even the mention of "hey, dude, listen to this band!" that is logged, may be enough to get a IP infringement lawsuit going. Don't forget libel and slander lawsuits. It wouldn't take much for a lawyer to go through, say Slashdot's postings, and file hundreds of thousands of lawsuits on anyone bashing Sony.
3: Other country's laws. People don't realize it in the US that Thailand's lese majeste laws apply here? Well, they do, and an American can get shipped over there for breaking them, due to extradition treaties. Same with Turkey and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In theory, someone handing out events for their pagan festival or church bulletins can be shipped over there to be executed, due to violating Islamic sharia laws. Privacy is important, since it isn't just domestic LEOs, but LEOs of foreign countries who can press charges and have US citizens answer for them. Right now, it tends not to be enforced, but the laws are on the books, and the pastor who was televised burning a Koran might find himself in Riyadh facing an imam and a crowd with rocks and a can of gasoline.
4: Laws created by treaties. The gun nuts fear the UN gun ban treaty that went into in effect last Christmas Eve. It wasn't ratified in the US... but that can change, and even though it didn't affect gun sales inside the US... it had a clause saying that UN could act as an enforcement agency within the US, operating independently from other LEOs. Now, think about this a minute. A law enforcement group with the power to use deadly force and enforce laws that were never put on the books by domestic lawmakers, with no way to contest their decisions. It might be something 3 percenters talk about now on talk radio... but do people remember how close ACTA came to being passed? It wouldn't be surprising to see another law like this come on the books under "anti-hacking statues" that would allow the UN to detain "hackers" under their own law, and under their own opinion.
5: Ex wifes/husbands. An acquaintance of mine lives in California, had a bad marriage, with the wife divorcing him for someone richer. Well, she had a good attorney (courtesy her new BF), and got a pretty insane alimony settlement. Well, the husband was out of work at the time, couldn't pay the payments... so the judge tossed him in for nonpayment for six months. He got out after that, two years later, was back in (as in California, unemployment isn't a good enough reason to not pay alimony costs.) Well, this shit went on for about two years, until this guy, once he got released, booked it to Mexico. Now, the ex wife is offering a bounty for anyone to find him and bring him to "justice". Not that she needs the money, but just out of pure malice. Without privacy, people who just had a bad relationship with a sadistic other can be killed.
6: Insurance companies. I've read cases on Slashdot where people have walked into a humidor at a Spec's, someone takes a
Oh, shut up already.
No. Facebook is an awful company and no one should deal with them. Giving your information to such a company only ensures it will be abused.
It's outrageously unreasonable to suggest that I ditch them now because they have an account on a website.
You don't need to ditch them, but at least don't follow them in getting a Facebook account unless you want to join them in being unprincipled ignoramuses who sacrifice massive amounts of privacy for convenience.
Surely they don't expect them to judge me on having an account on /.
Is Slashdot evil like Facebook? No. Facebook is designed to violate people's privacy and sell information to advertisers.
The company I work for asks me to change my password every month, so I am safe. Right?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
those protocols or programs have a major rating (major according to the article means impossible unless someone made a mistake or malware was used)
OTR
TrueCrypt
those protocols have a catastrophic rating (catastrophic for the NSA is a win for US)
ZRTP
PGP
about the SSH thing, it all depend on the cipher used, if you use ssh with a MD2-DES cypher expect it to be decrypted
if you use something like twofish or salsa20 your probably quite secure
Other country's laws. People don't realize it in the US that Thailand's lese majeste laws apply here? Well, they do, and an American can get shipped over there for breaking them, due to extradition treaties.
Extradition almost exclusively applies to to laws in other countries that would be also be considered criminal in the USA. Kill someone in Thailand, well murder is criminal in the USA, so they'll extradite you. Slander someone, well, that's not criminal in the USA, so you're safe. The USA also will not extradite if they think the punishment may be considered "extreme".
That's just a fact.
You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. That's an opinion.
Facebook is intolerable to anyone with actual principles.
"Actual" principles being the principles that you hold, and no one else's principles being "actual", No True Scotsman style.
Social networking is an option for socialization. Almost no one uses it to the exclusion of more traditional social activities, although I agree that Internet socialization is a mere shadow of in-person socialization.
You've either got an oversimplified black-and-white view of the world, or you're just getting a kick out of trolling everyone. Either way, I hope it works out for you. The way I'm living my life is working out wonderfully for me, in spite of our differences of opinion.
You can continue being all "stop liking what I don't like!" I'm gonna get back to talking to my friends and spending time with my wife.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
The article mentions:
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
You are poorly informed.
About?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09...
Certificate Authority:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
Old news virtually everyone here knows well.
Loss of Trust:
Information provided by Edward Snowden
Trust? What the fuck are you smoking???... The prior US administration LIED and started a goddamn war under completely false pretenses leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands displacing millions over the course of a decade...not a little privacy invasion or reading love letters...but grand fucking high crimes against humanity. A *DECADE* ago we found out about NSA collection of *ALL* domestic phone records.... As much as I love Ed Snowden there was no trust remaining to lose when he spoke out.
I trust the Internet was insecure and all kinds of TLA's and assorted bad actors were exploiting to the hilt from the very start. Security is our responsibility...nobody else's.
Those are singular examples to the issues I spoke of, there are many, many more.
In addition, only a small percentage of data has been released to the public from the "Snowden Cache", if it was all released maybe people like you would finally STFU
The only thing you have enumerated was bullshit about SSL and HSTS which were factually incorrect and demonstrate your lack of knowledge of underlying technology. It shows you can read technical articles without having a firm grasp of fundamentals. The rest is just bloviating about enumeration of unspecified this and that's ...you have nothing specific to say.
If anything what Snowden told us is that the systems we *know* are secure really are a PITA even for the NSA to crack...Snowden himself said as much during a hearing he remotely participated in from Russia and in several televised interviews with reporters earlier in the year.
The underlying point remains running around yelling "How can you trust anything" ... is not helpful in any way... It spreads FUD and makes no positive contribution.
I see a lot of similar comments, but I liked yours so I'll address the themes here.
First, facebook is not the only problem. You're kidding yourself if you think it is. The list of technology companies that sucker their users are as long as the list of technology companies that sell 'the cloud'. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc.
Worse than this, the evil is not marketing. The real evil is the secret pact between the tech companies and the government's monopoly on the initiation of force, for the benefit of a minority of oligarch families. The elite's technology branch
The real evil is the patriot act, the capture of government, the capture of industry and the subversion of the constitution. All tech companies are a part of this, most willingly, some unwillingly or unwittingly and the only honest ones are forced to shut down.
The capture of the government and industry is nothing new, but it reached tremendous success in the 20th century. First they captured the congress and the judicial, then the executive, then the monetary system and then they really captured the executive with the JFK assassination. Don't forget where some of the recent oligarchs originated.
Do you see it yet? if you rule out the vast majority of the population based on internet usage, you're out of whack. Firstly because that's not the real problem.
Also, you might have MUCH MORE in common with someone who uises fb daily than on someone who doesn't, based on your OTHER principles and virtues.
It's like saying, "I'll only hang out with people who are atheists.". That's not enough. In 10 years time that could still be all you have in common. Or they could change their minds.
Finally I would just like to remind people that not only is the USA responsible for millions of deaths around the world, it now tortures people.
If you refuse to interact with people who support these acts, how will you ever change their minds?
Oh and just for good measure. A fucking surveillance blimp. The internet of things is coming to spy on you from the sky 24/7. Is it not enough that you've captured the mass media? If you were to only hang out with people who share all your principles or most important beliefs, you would not hang out with anyone.
Furthermore, having intelligent debate with people who disagree with you (and are virtuous enough to have an intelligent debate) is the only way that you can make any sort of real progress in self discovery and discovery of the universe. If your ideas an principles are not challenged, if you don't go back to first principles to figure what what's really important, if you don't re-assess your beliefs in the face of new evidence, you'll never improve.
Liberty.