Companies like Gamma Group are selling this software at exorbitant prices under defense contracts. They offer to infect about any (non-hardened, non-military) system and any telefone in existence, and for the money they get they can easily hold that promise.
So, no, switching to a lesser known system will not help much. Perhaps it will make a few people curse and delay the whole spying attempt for a few months, but not much more.
Well, one admittedly small loss is that my little shareware app that existed for over a decade will no longer work out of the box on OSX thanks to Gatekeeper.
No problem, though. If people complain, I'll just send them to Apple customer support.
Apparently, a shortened version of the speech has been leaked. Here is it:
Uhm. Hello guys! We do some really cool stuff at the NSA and have some really big machines. Unfortunately, I cannot go into the details here, so just trust in blind faith when I say that work at NSA is pretty cool and some of you might be interested in joining us -- provided you are "flexible", patriots up to a pathological level and willing to totally submit to superiors, of course. Because we're the good guys (again, I cannot really justify why we are the good guys, as this is all top secret, etc.). Thanks a lot and hope to see you soon at NSA!
After careful examination of the meaningless documents, I'd say it looks a lot like the NSA needs a new inkjet printer. Or, at least they should use the automatic cleaning function (but in that case they'll also need a new ink cartridge).
I agree that the market has to be regulated to avoid monopolies -- anti-cartel regulations, fraud -- consumer protection, and extreme enrichment at the cost of others -- equalitarian tax system, Scandinavian style.
However, there sure is a healthy capitalism. It works by producing quality goods without exploiting employees and selling them at a fair price. There are still thousands of companies who do that. The sad thing is just that these companies seem to die out slowly and are replaced by stock market companies who produce low quality goods, often exploit their employees -- or, more common, exploit workers in other countries --, and sell the products at exaggerated prices.
But isn't a tragedy about some inevitable fate such as Oedipus fucking his mother and then becomes blind as a punishment, whereas this shooting could have been easily prevented by investigating why an ordinary guy needs to purchase 4 guns and 6000 rounds of amunition within 60 days?
One serious use of these devices is as an emergency tool or temporary replacement. For example, I'll have to switch to a new motherboard in my PC at some time and intend to switch to one of these tiny machines for a few days until the new machine is ready. Of course, that's only possible as long as you're using GNU/Linux for your daily work, but who doesn't?
Now if only someone could cram the electronics of one of these power-efficient devices into a Unicomp keyboard, add a battery, and hook it up to a DIN A 4 format e-ink screen! Despite it's size that would be my preferred "laptop".
1. Where there are more guns there is more homicide (literature review).
Our review of the academic literature found that a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries. Case-control studies, ecological time-series and cross-sectional studies indicate that in homes, cities, states and regions in the US, where there are more guns, both men and women are at higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide.
Hepburn, Lisa; Hemenway, David. Firearm availability and homicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 2004; 9:417-40.
2. Across high-income nations, more guns = more homicide.
We analyzed the relationship between homicide and gun availability using data from 26 developed countries from the early 1990s. We found that across developed countries, where guns are more available, there are more homicides. These results often hold even when the United States is excluded.
Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Firearm availability and homicide rates across 26 high income countries. Journal of Trauma. 2000; 49:985-88.
3. Across states, more guns = more homicide
Using a validated proxy for firearm ownership, we analyzed the relationship between firearm availability and homicide across 50 states over a ten year period (1988-1997).
After controlling for poverty and urbanization, for every age group, people in states with many guns have elevated rates of homicide, particularly firearm homicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership levels and homicide rates across U.S. regions and states, 1988-1997. American Journal of Public Health. 2002: 92:1988-1993.
4. Across states, more guns = more homicide (2)
Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and homicide across states, 2001-2003. We found that states with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm homicide and overall homicide. This relationship held for both genders and all age groups, after accounting for rates of aggravated assault, robbery, unemployment, urbanization, alcohol consumption, and resource deprivation (e.g., poverty). There was no association between gun prevalence and non-firearm homicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. State-level homicide victimization rates in the U.S. in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership, 2001-2003. Social Science and Medicine. 2007; 64:656-64.
I still prefer 80+ character passphrases lifted from song lyrics whenever possible. If you know the song well enough it's impossible to crack, and the search space is still large among people who know you like that particular song
I highly doubt that the search space is large enough. You cannot memorize many song texts (no more than a few thousand, and I'm being optimistic here) and it is easy to predict from background information which songs you know and like. Given that, plus the fact that it is highly likely that you will start your passphrase at a word boundary, it looks awfully easy to break your 80+ character passphrase using a customized dictionary attack.
Passphrases from books might fare better, assuming that you have a few thousand books and choose the book and passage fairly randomly. (Then again, we all know the guy with the rubber gloves from movies, who inspects your books by letting them "fall open" and finds the right passage immediately...)
I think that anyone who complains that hiding the constant 0xB16B00B5 somewhere deep in the Linux kernel is sexist is retarded. Go parse that sentence!
I do care, I appreciate it a lot if McDonald's personel ripps people's digital eyepieces off. As far as I'm concerned, I'd be happy if they'd also confiscate iPhones and tablets.
However, as others have pointed out, going to McDonalds in France, not to speak of Paris where there are some of the world's best restaurants, is simply inexcusable.
Why, the silly patents allow them to extort tens of thousands of individual developers and thousands of small businesses and destroy them whenever they like, and since we're talking about Apple they will also do that whenever it benefits them. The vast majority of small businesses does not have the resources to defend themselves against patent lawsuites, no matter how idiotic the patents might be and how much prior art already exists.
Patents like this have only one function. Keep control of business in the hand of a few cartels and prevent any smaller, potentially faster and more innovative companies from ever becoming viable competition.
Theater owners could start by offering reasonable prices. I don't know how that is in the US, but here in Europe you may have to pay up to 5 Euro for a bag of peanuts. Usually I bring my own stuff, but it's still insulting.
I'd also be grateful if Hollywood could stop ending almost every movie with a 20-30 minute long horribly exaggerated CGI action-movie sequence and instead return to normal timing and a reasonable storyline. Not every climax has to feel like an extended fake-orgasm. Just sayin'...
Quantum computers are a thread to certain assymetric algorithms like RSA and ElGamal, not symmetric algorithms (aside from halving the key length, but that is solved by doubling the key length).
Not entirely true, algorithms like AES do not have a high enough security margin. Also, you cannot just change the key length, even if the algorithm specification would allow that (like e.g. Blowfish does), because whatever change you make needs to be cryptanalyzed first. The same for other changes like multiple encryption, etc.
We have assymetric algorithms that resist quantum computer attacks; McEliece, Regev, etc.
So how many "cloud" service providers use them? Answer: Zero.
Quantum computers are about as "on the horizon" as cold fusion.
Only insofar as the the public sector is concerned. It not unreasonable to assume that intelligence agencies of larger countries are 10-20 years ahead.
Sorry, I don't want to be fear-mongering, but there is a point to the claim that if you put your data into the cloud now, it might be decryptable in ten years from now.
However, I think the real problem is the opposite, If you put your data into the cloud now, there is a good chance that you will loose it within the next ten years, because at least half of the cloud companies will go bankrupt. I still remember very well my totally free and life-long USA.NET address, which lasted about a year until the company disappeared.
But I can switch mine off - can't you? I have a non-smart phone though, if that makes a difference.
You have to remove the battery, though. Just switching off does not suffice. Any brand of mobile phone can be used as a tracking device and transmit voice data even when it appears to be switched off. They can even reflash your phone's operating system without you noticing.
I'm not making this up, there are plenty of companies who offer this service to authorized law enforcement and government agencies all over the world. But, of course, we're talking about you being the target of an ongoing investigation, which is probably not what you had in mind when you've made your commentary.
Slashdot Mirror
There hundreds of thousand Java apps that are not desktop apps, like e.g. every Android app. So what's your point?
Companies like Gamma Group are selling this software at exorbitant prices under defense contracts. They offer to infect about any (non-hardened, non-military) system and any telefone in existence, and for the money they get they can easily hold that promise.
So, no, switching to a lesser known system will not help much. Perhaps it will make a few people curse and delay the whole spying attempt for a few months, but not much more.
Okay, where do I get a certificate for free?
Thanks, but it's much easier to just direct them to Apple customer service.
Well, one admittedly small loss is that my little shareware app that existed for over a decade will no longer work out of the box on OSX thanks to Gatekeeper.
No problem, though. If people complain, I'll just send them to Apple customer support.
Apparently, a shortened version of the speech has been leaked. Here is it:
Uhm. Hello guys! We do some really cool stuff at the NSA and have some really big machines. Unfortunately, I cannot go into the details here, so just trust in blind faith when I say that work at NSA is pretty cool and some of you might be interested in joining us -- provided you are "flexible", patriots up to a pathological level and willing to totally submit to superiors, of course. Because we're the good guys (again, I cannot really justify why we are the good guys, as this is all top secret, etc.). Thanks a lot and hope to see you soon at NSA!
After careful examination of the meaningless documents, I'd say it looks a lot like the NSA needs a new inkjet printer. Or, at least they should use the automatic cleaning function (but in that case they'll also need a new ink cartridge).
I agree that the market has to be regulated to avoid monopolies -- anti-cartel regulations, fraud -- consumer protection, and extreme enrichment at the cost of others -- equalitarian tax system, Scandinavian style.
However, there sure is a healthy capitalism. It works by producing quality goods without exploiting employees and selling them at a fair price. There are still thousands of companies who do that. The sad thing is just that these companies seem to die out slowly and are replaced by stock market companies who produce low quality goods, often exploit their employees -- or, more common, exploit workers in other countries --, and sell the products at exaggerated prices.
"Cyber" is a short form for "cybernetics", a former science that has been surpassed/replaced by control theory and dynamics system theory.
Just because a few thousands clueless politicians use the term the wrong way doesn't mean that they successfully have redefined its meaning.
But isn't a tragedy about some inevitable fate such as Oedipus fucking his mother and then becomes blind as a punishment, whereas this shooting could have been easily prevented by investigating why an ordinary guy needs to purchase 4 guns and 6000 rounds of amunition within 60 days?
One serious use of these devices is as an emergency tool or temporary replacement. For example, I'll have to switch to a new motherboard in my PC at some time and intend to switch to one of these tiny machines for a few days until the new machine is ready. Of course, that's only possible as long as you're using GNU/Linux for your daily work, but who doesn't?
Interesting overview, thanks!
Now if only someone could cram the electronics of one of these power-efficient devices into a Unicomp keyboard, add a battery, and hook it up to a DIN A 4 format e-ink screen! Despite it's size that would be my preferred "laptop".
Harvard Injury Control Research Center
Homicide
1. Where there are more guns there is more homicide (literature review).
Our review of the academic literature found that a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries. Case-control studies, ecological time-series and cross-sectional studies indicate that in homes, cities, states and regions in the US, where there are more guns, both men and women are at higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide.
Hepburn, Lisa; Hemenway, David. Firearm availability and homicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 2004; 9:417-40.
2. Across high-income nations, more guns = more homicide.
We analyzed the relationship between homicide and gun availability using data from 26 developed countries from the early 1990s. We found that across developed countries, where guns are more available, there are more homicides. These results often hold even when the United States is excluded.
Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Firearm availability and homicide rates across 26 high income countries. Journal of Trauma. 2000; 49:985-88.
3. Across states, more guns = more homicide
Using a validated proxy for firearm ownership, we analyzed the relationship between firearm availability and homicide across 50 states over a ten year period (1988-1997).
After controlling for poverty and urbanization, for every age group, people in states with many guns have elevated rates of homicide, particularly firearm homicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership levels and homicide rates across U.S. regions and states, 1988-1997. American Journal of Public Health. 2002: 92:1988-1993.
4. Across states, more guns = more homicide (2)
Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and homicide across states, 2001-2003. We found that states with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm homicide and overall homicide. This relationship held for both genders and all age groups, after accounting for rates of aggravated assault, robbery, unemployment, urbanization, alcohol consumption, and resource deprivation (e.g., poverty). There was no association between gun prevalence and non-firearm homicide.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. State-level homicide victimization rates in the U.S. in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership, 2001-2003. Social Science and Medicine. 2007; 64:656-64.
I still prefer 80+ character passphrases lifted from song lyrics whenever possible. If you know the song well enough it's impossible to crack, and the search space is still large among people who know you like that particular song
I highly doubt that the search space is large enough. You cannot memorize many song texts (no more than a few thousand, and I'm being optimistic here) and it is easy to predict from background information which songs you know and like. Given that, plus the fact that it is highly likely that you will start your passphrase at a word boundary, it looks awfully easy to break your 80+ character passphrase using a customized dictionary attack.
Passphrases from books might fare better, assuming that you have a few thousand books and choose the book and passage fairly randomly. (Then again, we all know the guy with the rubber gloves from movies, who inspects your books by letting them "fall open" and finds the right passage immediately...)
So the phrase "Sorry, I have my period" is sexist?
I knew it, I knew it!
I think that anyone who complains that hiding the constant 0xB16B00B5 somewhere deep in the Linux kernel is sexist is retarded. Go parse that sentence!
I do care, I appreciate it a lot if McDonald's personel ripps people's digital eyepieces off. As far as I'm concerned, I'd be happy if they'd also confiscate iPhones and tablets.
However, as others have pointed out, going to McDonalds in France, not to speak of Paris where there are some of the world's best restaurants, is simply inexcusable.
I didn't find anything disgusting on this page. Perhaps you should visit the kitchen of any restaurant some day to see what it's really like...?
Why, the silly patents allow them to extort tens of thousands of individual developers and thousands of small businesses and destroy them whenever they like, and since we're talking about Apple they will also do that whenever it benefits them. The vast majority of small businesses does not have the resources to defend themselves against patent lawsuites, no matter how idiotic the patents might be and how much prior art already exists.
Patents like this have only one function. Keep control of business in the hand of a few cartels and prevent any smaller, potentially faster and more innovative companies from ever becoming viable competition.
Theater owners could start by offering reasonable prices. I don't know how that is in the US, but here in Europe you may have to pay up to 5 Euro for a bag of peanuts. Usually I bring my own stuff, but it's still insulting.
I'd also be grateful if Hollywood could stop ending almost every movie with a 20-30 minute long horribly exaggerated CGI action-movie sequence and instead return to normal timing and a reasonable storyline. Not every climax has to feel like an extended fake-orgasm. Just sayin'...
Of course.
Quantum computing is the problem for crypto
Quantum computers are a thread to certain assymetric algorithms like RSA and ElGamal, not symmetric algorithms (aside from halving the key length, but that is solved by doubling the key length).
Not entirely true, algorithms like AES do not have a high enough security margin. Also, you cannot just change the key length, even if the algorithm specification would allow that (like e.g. Blowfish does), because whatever change you make needs to be cryptanalyzed first. The same for other changes like multiple encryption, etc.
We have assymetric algorithms that resist quantum computer attacks; McEliece, Regev, etc.
So how many "cloud" service providers use them? Answer: Zero.
Quantum computers are about as "on the horizon" as cold fusion.
Only insofar as the the public sector is concerned. It not unreasonable to assume that intelligence agencies of larger countries are 10-20 years ahead.
Sorry, I don't want to be fear-mongering, but there is a point to the claim that if you put your data into the cloud now, it might be decryptable in ten years from now.
However, I think the real problem is the opposite, If you put your data into the cloud now, there is a good chance that you will loose it within the next ten years, because at least half of the cloud companies will go bankrupt. I still remember very well my totally free and life-long USA.NET address, which lasted about a year until the company disappeared.
I'm sure this is a logical fallacy, but I don't know the name of it.
It's called "false dichotomy" or "false dilemma" and, more generally, "fallacy of exhaustive hypotheses."
But I can switch mine off - can't you? I have a non-smart phone though, if that makes a difference.
You have to remove the battery, though. Just switching off does not suffice. Any brand of mobile phone can be used as a tracking device and transmit voice data even when it appears to be switched off. They can even reflash your phone's operating system without you noticing.
I'm not making this up, there are plenty of companies who offer this service to authorized law enforcement and government agencies all over the world. But, of course, we're talking about you being the target of an ongoing investigation, which is probably not what you had in mind when you've made your commentary.
Probably just porn.