The idea was to conscript a method for a generation of phones so the US federal law enforcement and US state/federal task forces could stand before any open US court and present all material found on any generation of cell phone. The created master key could then be understood by all in a public court setting any tech experts could track back any methods to their origins and go over all findings. Thats why the very public gov conscripted master key was attempted. The public chain of custody idea was pushed so any US court could be presented with a simple conscripted story of how all the data was now readable and all related crypto methods would be open court ready.
This will be interesting for all the other pending US state and federal encrypted cell phone hardware waiting to be presented to an open court.
That was common in the early 1990's. Now some of the reviews of todays VR devices like to push just how well they felt and how they had no physical issues.
Lets hope the gpu, cpu, "4k ready" as computer hardware and VR 90 fps can keep up and most users feel ok due to advances in hardware and software:)
As a wider selection of users report in with different VR designs and support it will be interesting reading about the more common physical reactions to the VR again:)
Re "I thought the same thing but reading the paper the attack scenario seems reasonable."
Even if its only governments, mil and their contractors that can afford to do it or have the skilled teams in place? Then the ex staff and former staff and anyone who can afford the method via the services of ex and former staff around the world?
Sooner or later every aspect of weak junk crypto is offered for sale on the open market. Best to fix such leaking issues at the design phase.
A free traditional "charger" offered in a hotel room to a interesting guest who just arrived and has questions about their own hardware and the local power supply?
Any nations security services could set up and hide a few devices in a hotel room for just that ability if a guests phone is placed in an expected location to charge:)
Free chargers at locations expecting a larger flow of international guests or daily use. Altered to try and be within the distance.
Considering its origins and funding?
US government increases funding for Tor, giving $1.8m in 2013 http://www.theguardian.com/tec...
How is this securing government backed users and their tasks globally?
The need to communicate with network promoting color revolutions vs the role of US federal law enforcement to track back to an original ip.
Secure enough to still offer communications to shape, direct and project US foreign policy, still able to be trackable by federal US law enforcement...
For all that to work a growing, larger user base in needed to offer cover for the more important communications to the backers of say a color revolution or well funding international NGO pushing for another regime change.
Re "Maybe the FBI had a way to break into the phone all along and this was just a shakedown of Apple."
The NSA always had a way in, like PRISM and all the staff that helped keep that way in wide open. But that was a secret
The CIA, GCHQ, Australia, NZ, Canada have their own methods to track any phone globally. That still is a secret and would not be useful in an open US state or federal court.
The part the FBI wants is a method that is open court friendly. A legal team can call any US expert and the result in open court will be that the US branded cell phone was decrypted and information was extracted.
The part needed was to conscript a US company into creating a computer ready master key to generations of cell phones ready for open courts at a state and federal level.
Re "So they haven't even verified that it works before dropping the case?"
If the method is kept a secret, then its a consultant in the US or on the international trusted friends of the US list and the method will be kept hidden from any public court. Secret courts, sealed paperwork, only get to use US gov approved security cleared lawyers.
Every case gets the States Secrets treatment and the US legal professions notices the change and talks to the press. Hard to hide the lack of access to existing or pending cases and their clients or revoking a lawyers legal standing before a "secure" court at a state level due to fancy new federal crypto support:)
The lack of new federal interest in or public comment will confirm the code is broken on all devices of that generation.
The other option is an open court show trial to prove the federal crypto WIN in public, a method that is legally ready and any US lawyer can question in open court or call an expert on. All the cell phone trials pending are public and decrypted material is published in open court.
That public result will be clear for all generations and brand of phone. Conscription worked and the created master key is the very public informant.
That shows the GCHQ's decades of wisdom in never going to any court if at all possible and never having any of its experts near the open or secret legal system.
CIA chief: we’ll spy on you through your dishwasher (03.15.12)
"“Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing,”"
Stay with ethernet and a computer thats web facing:)
PRISM worked well and never had any internal problems.
The end result will be a court ready master key, conscripted from any US brand or a rediscovery of strong crypto.
The NSA and GCHQ had two options to get to users. Privacy and anonymity could both be made collection friendly or one part could cover for the total loss of the another.
The classic ideas was to gift the world tame, junk crypto standards that would revert to plain text for the NSA but be resistant to any in the middle attacks.
That started to get more tricky into the 1980's. The GCHQ was also trying to collect all communications in and connecting to Ireland and did not want any advancements to network anonymity even if new totally secure crypto was in play.
So the security services allowed strong crypto but ensured their connections with tame telcos and network providers would make anonymity an impossibility.
Enjoy any export grade crypto, import it, design in, the message origin would always be trackable. Once found, traditional methods would get around any bespoke crypto (logging, bugs, cameras, unique malware).
The "Encryption is Bad" was just a useful, busy work, talking point over a decade put out to cover the total loss of network anonymity. Digital users felt safe entering data as the crypto was now really good. The tame networks would always track them down.
The "elite line is drawn" if a person walks into a safe Tempest secure vault to talk about and then sets policy in person. No notes, paper kept to one of one and collected. ie if reading or allowed to set policy on a computer, that person never made the elite and is under constant security service tracking.
Thats the other side of the "Encryption is Good" for the almost elite part, contractors, leaders who think they made it to the very top, but are under constant watch.
ie if your allowed on a copy and paste GUI onto another computer and sending and getting party political/mil/gov messages from people globally its been watched and your "digital" security clearance is a long term trap. The allowed or given computer is a decades long honey trap for the user and all their international contacts.
That can be seen in the high level German gov crypto phone efforts and EU crypto fax efforts. Leaders and top embassy/political staff are handed digital junk hardware and told its "safe" and been fully tested by their own nations best. Every message then gets mirrored to 5 eye nations for free.
Some reading on the efforts
New NSA leaks show how US is bugging its European allies (1 July 2013) http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
Embassy Espionage: The NSA's Secret Spy Hub in Berlin (October 27, 2013) http://www.spiegel.de/internat...
That should help with the Elite, Encryption is Good, Encryption is Bad and who gets told what, told a product is secure within their own nation, who tests and signs over what hardware within a nation and what level of leadership then is allowed to "trust" that device or gets a computer system:)
As secure as domestic data collection was with any one of the many brands that helped with PRISM.
With two helper brands for domestic collection, the links back to the US gov will be even more secure and NSL friendly.
If it wants PRISM then no domestic issues, gov and US brands work together just fine for years.
The problem for the US gov is this method will be seen in open court over generations of cell phones.
Not every person will take a plea deal. Not every person will have all their funds frozen. Some will still have funds for legal teams and their own tech experts.
The UK and GCHQ avoided all that by just trying not to go to any court for any reason for decades. Information flowed to the gov and mil without media questions or court or public comment. No one in public or the UK legal system could work out how a case really started. Whispers about deep undercover work, informants, a super grass.. kept collect it all digital methods very well hidden.
The NSA tried to keep the same level of skill but then other parts of state and US federal gov wanted the NSA like methods to get that win in public.
Decades of hidden skills would be very public in a fews day of public court questions.
So the idea is to conscript the brand into becoming the informant and any legal team can ask away about methods, origins, how the case was constructed.. the cell phone brand will take the questions in open court.
A very public easy win but its like a digital Berlin wall, everyone sees it been built and the results in court.
The clandestine services thing the public will shy away for their easy decades of digital collect it all.
State and federal law enforcement have a winning vision of a big brother cell phone been carried around by most people, most of the time no matter how much gov code is mandated to be designed in.
So Re 'get in its way"? Will a generation be happy to carry around big gov ready phones? Stop buying? Buy other brands?
The US gov has always had all the surrounding call data, logs, calls made. Thats the designed in telco surveillance capabilities side.
A new idea might be to extend CALEA putting big gov ready code inside every US networked product by design.
Does the FBI want a back door to use on any iPhone or just this phone in particular unlocked?
The request is for a gov computer ready master key method to get into a generation of phones at a federal level and for federal help with states telco needs.
Every phone in that generation will then be open to any gov worker, contractor, other govs workers, contractors, ex staff, former staff, anyone who can pay for the services to get the same method.
Re It's not about the hack...
Its about making the PRISM material legal in any US state or federal open court. The brand and phone becomes the named informant. GPS, logs, images, movement, voice, files.
A cell phone brand can even be the origin of an entire case in open court, hiding deeper human or mil signals parallel construction.
Recall the " and the zombies would be paying customers?" quote from
iSpy: How the NSA Accesses Smartphone Data (September 09, 2013) http://www.spiegel.de/internat...
Buy a lot of books online with your CC, ip.
Libertarian philosophies, survivalist literature, self-sufficiency, economic collapse, book of Revelation, the ever expanding role of big government, civil liberties.
Mention ongoing whistleblower news and list the project names surrounding the NSA's tasking tools, correlation and selectors. MAINWAY, IRONMAN ect.
Read local news about any events, anti war protests, campaigns with a US foreign policy connection, public meetings. Local government having a public hearing or seeking public comments?
Turn up, ensure your cell phone is always on. Be seen around the area. Get out that old, larger DSLR camera. Before, after and during the event. Walk around the event with a cell phone, park your vehicle near the event and try to interact with anyone handing out event pamphlets. Wonder around so any surveillance teams can get a good image for facial recognition. Ensure your cell phone is tracked around the area and your vehicle registration enters a database. A few new libertarian bumper stickers bought online with a CC is always useful to make your vehicle stand out to any level of gov.
Ensure any city or state task force reports you to the local Fusion center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... for long term federal consideration.
When online try and use as many politically interesting search terms as possible everyday on the big brand search sites that collaborate so well with big gov. Fill any posts, blogs with political or keywords relating to emerging signals intelligence over the years.
Shape your own gov paperwork and help your state and federal workers create a vast digital dossier on your own terms.
Enjoy the later state or federal chatdown and post it to any good first amendment audit site.
Your federal and state gov has spent so much on its new workers and databases, why not participate and help create gov jobs.
Just enjoying the First amendment every weekend could ensure years of full employment for teams of private sector contractors watching you.
Yes the new idea is to watch for structuring transactions via suspicious activity reports. ie any regularly made deposits of any amount can induce tracking to find patterns of deposits.
The same would be done by govs for for reading lists, buying of products and services.
Re Only buy routine items online.
Or be seen buying into libertarian philosophies, survivalist literature, self-sufficiency, reading lists about the book of Revelation, big government, constitutional rights and civil liberties, contractors and mass surveillance.
Give the digital bait for something to track, then change up the online buying habits:)
The maps of the US over the years tend to show the city and state blocking lobbyist handiwork.
133 US cities now have their own broadband networks (Mar 24, 2011) http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
Municipal fiber needs more FDR localism, fewer state bans ( Jan 7, 2010) http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
and the efforts some states have to remove the bans
Colorado’s muni broadband ban overridden in 44 communities (Nov 6, 2015) http://arstechnica.com/busines...
The AV product just looks for the standard factory set admin password and suggests a change as malware has been found using the default hardware password lists.
AC re ' Until then, the government will always have more power than you would like. That's life."
The US is not a Star Chamber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... allowing a gov or bureaucrat to conscript a brand to create a master key to unlock an entire generation of devices. Thats why the US has a few protections like the Fourth Amendment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution so papers can be kept secure from tyranny.
As far are the government access to telco products some readers may recall the BBC Click interview with a question about gov access: (13 April 2011) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/pro...
Would a 5 eye nation allow such a device to even be sold or connect to their national telco networks?
It would be back to a US court to show that the phone could not be decrypted for use before any public state of federal court.
Thats the big gov conscription aspect that will always win over any import efforts. Then brand and product range as sold would have to have junk encryption that any US court can get to.
A person needs end to end anonymity for a one-time-pad to work well.
If that code fragment is detected then other methods will be used to try and find the plain text data if a computer like device was used.
Or a sneak and peek visit to add a set of cameras on site hoping the code is created by hand at the same location every time.
Bespoke gov created malware gets pushed down onto the cell phone or computer just for that user and then digital one-time-pad anonymity and privacy are gone.
Re "may be the event that causes bad people to get smarter."
By going public with decryption and big brand conscription every smart person of interest will have to be watched by shifts and groups of 6-10 human agents or contractors as they stop using their gov ready US cell phones. Thats a huge win for new funding and an expansion of needed law enforcement staff. Then the human teams to try and turn every convict or person who has had contact with the US justice system. Thats more staff, databases, teams working with state and city law enforcement.
That goes to the US gov demanding a universal, conscripted master key. Its not for one phone, its for generations of phones waiting in the state and federal legal system so the results can be presented in open court.
The individual is reduced to owing a gov mandated always on digital informant ready to copy their secure papers and effects at the domestic whim of a bureaucrat.
Re "It seems like the FBI wants to win the battle"
The US could have learned a lot from the UK efforts with its GCHQ help for police. In the past it was all about the clandestine services never been seen, understood and never facing court. The UK police would always win as they had all the evidence but the origins could be placed back to a human informant or a tip, slip up or other court friendly ongoing investigative powers.
The person of interest and their legal team would still feel safe with their cell phones on, computer files backed up, been listened to in their offices, cars, homes, at meetings, over weekends.
As the UK gov never showed any public skill or interest in such methods in open court, the wider media, or a secure legal setting the risk was low. Such methods seemed technically or legally beyond the scope or funding of the gov or mil or security services per crime or for pre crime efforts.
Such efforts got used all the time in Ireland but did not flow over into the wider UK due to cost or legal issues.
That kind of skill set can last generations and decades allowing a gov to have total mastery over domestic signals gathering designed into the consumer and national telco systems.
The UK had no press, fame, very few court wins based on phone/cell logs, budgets to expand, contractors to thank in public, contractors helping political leaders.
The ability to keep a secret was the UK win, not a US press conference to tell the world that encryption was junk and gov ready on every new phone.
Just years of amazing results nobody in the mainstream press or legal systems could ever understood or could work out. Court cases had human origins, ensuing ever more phone chatter got generated about other deeper informants, legal fears or a person granted immunity.
The US seems to want to tell the world it can reverse all domestic computer equipment. That will work for all sealed telco products ready for court but then what?
What interesting person is going to carry a US gov designed, conscripted and mandated court ready device? GPS beacon, voice print recorder and text, video, photo collection device with them at all times, open to any city, state, county, parish or federal bureaucrat?
A few weeks of easy court win, national fame, press and then the interesting people meet in person again with no phones for the next decades.
Re 'Seriously - the level of silliness is getting absurd."
Follow the new funding:
Back to a huge budget increase to create a huge network of human informants, consultants, contractors and undercover teams to fill the totally unexpected digital gap?
Shift work of 6 to 8 human officials or new contractors to watch each interesting person vs a NSA computer keeping track 24/7. Thats a huge new budget and over time win.
A loss of NSA collection funding and political fame now flows to new winning human teams in the FBI. Cell phones going dark will have new budget winners.
The aspect slashdot should have learned about was that any code from any ip could be another ip range and have a different nation as the origin.
All the classic code review shows is all the expected code fragments, ip ranges and time of day results found point back to "expected" nations and their mil and their govs.
The idea that smarter coders are just working for other efforts, mils and govs using this surge of reported activity as cover to mask their own efforts stiff seems to be unimaginable.
Generation of efforts like the Equation Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... efforts can come from any nation or working groups between govs.
Strange how the easy public reporting efforts seem to be focused on ransomware while a lot of nations contractors and mil, gov efforts just always slip past.
Slashdot Mirror
The idea was to conscript a method for a generation of phones so the US federal law enforcement and US state/federal task forces could stand before any open US court and present all material found on any generation of cell phone.
The created master key could then be understood by all in a public court setting any tech experts could track back any methods to their origins and go over all findings.
Thats why the very public gov conscripted master key was attempted. The public chain of custody idea was pushed so any US court could be presented with a simple conscripted story of how all the data was now readable and all related crypto methods would be open court ready.
This will be interesting for all the other pending US state and federal encrypted cell phone hardware waiting to be presented to an open court.
That was common in the early 1990's. Now some of the reviews of todays VR devices like to push just how well they felt and how they had no physical issues. :) :)
Lets hope the gpu, cpu, "4k ready" as computer hardware and VR 90 fps can keep up and most users feel ok due to advances in hardware and software
As a wider selection of users report in with different VR designs and support it will be interesting reading about the more common physical reactions to the VR again
Re "I thought the same thing but reading the paper the attack scenario seems reasonable." :)
Even if its only governments, mil and their contractors that can afford to do it or have the skilled teams in place? Then the ex staff and former staff and anyone who can afford the method via the services of ex and former staff around the world?
Sooner or later every aspect of weak junk crypto is offered for sale on the open market. Best to fix such leaking issues at the design phase.
A free traditional "charger" offered in a hotel room to a interesting guest who just arrived and has questions about their own hardware and the local power supply? Any nations security services could set up and hide a few devices in a hotel room for just that ability if a guests phone is placed in an expected location to charge
Free chargers at locations expecting a larger flow of international guests or daily use. Altered to try and be within the distance.
Considering its origins and funding?
US government increases funding for Tor, giving $1.8m in 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/tec...
How is this securing government backed users and their tasks globally?
The need to communicate with network promoting color revolutions vs the role of US federal law enforcement to track back to an original ip.
Secure enough to still offer communications to shape, direct and project US foreign policy, still able to be trackable by federal US law enforcement...
For all that to work a growing, larger user base in needed to offer cover for the more important communications to the backers of say a color revolution or well funding international NGO pushing for another regime change.
Re "Maybe the FBI had a way to break into the phone all along and this was just a shakedown of Apple." :)
The NSA always had a way in, like PRISM and all the staff that helped keep that way in wide open. But that was a secret
The CIA, GCHQ, Australia, NZ, Canada have their own methods to track any phone globally. That still is a secret and would not be useful in an open US state or federal court.
The part the FBI wants is a method that is open court friendly. A legal team can call any US expert and the result in open court will be that the US branded cell phone was decrypted and information was extracted.
The part needed was to conscript a US company into creating a computer ready master key to generations of cell phones ready for open courts at a state and federal level.
Re "So they haven't even verified that it works before dropping the case?"
If the method is kept a secret, then its a consultant in the US or on the international trusted friends of the US list and the method will be kept hidden from any public court. Secret courts, sealed paperwork, only get to use US gov approved security cleared lawyers.
Every case gets the States Secrets treatment and the US legal professions notices the change and talks to the press. Hard to hide the lack of access to existing or pending cases and their clients or revoking a lawyers legal standing before a "secure" court at a state level due to fancy new federal crypto support
The lack of new federal interest in or public comment will confirm the code is broken on all devices of that generation.
The other option is an open court show trial to prove the federal crypto WIN in public, a method that is legally ready and any US lawyer can question in open court or call an expert on. All the cell phone trials pending are public and decrypted material is published in open court.
That public result will be clear for all generations and brand of phone. Conscription worked and the created master key is the very public informant.
That shows the GCHQ's decades of wisdom in never going to any court if at all possible and never having any of its experts near the open or secret legal system.
The 1984 issue was the test event.
Amazon recalls (and embodies) Orwell's '1984' (July 17, 2009) http://www.cnet.com/news/amazo...!
CIA chief: we’ll spy on you through your dishwasher (03.15.12)
:)
"“Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing,”"
Stay with ethernet and a computer thats web facing
PRISM worked well and never had any internal problems.
The end result will be a court ready master key, conscripted from any US brand or a rediscovery of strong crypto.
Yes its one of the few products thats good for long line adsl :)
The NSA and GCHQ had two options to get to users. Privacy and anonymity could both be made collection friendly or one part could cover for the total loss of the another. :)
The classic ideas was to gift the world tame, junk crypto standards that would revert to plain text for the NSA but be resistant to any in the middle attacks.
That started to get more tricky into the 1980's. The GCHQ was also trying to collect all communications in and connecting to Ireland and did not want any advancements to network anonymity even if new totally secure crypto was in play.
So the security services allowed strong crypto but ensured their connections with tame telcos and network providers would make anonymity an impossibility.
Enjoy any export grade crypto, import it, design in, the message origin would always be trackable. Once found, traditional methods would get around any bespoke crypto (logging, bugs, cameras, unique malware).
The "Encryption is Bad" was just a useful, busy work, talking point over a decade put out to cover the total loss of network anonymity. Digital users felt safe entering data as the crypto was now really good. The tame networks would always track them down.
The "elite line is drawn" if a person walks into a safe Tempest secure vault to talk about and then sets policy in person. No notes, paper kept to one of one and collected.
ie if reading or allowed to set policy on a computer, that person never made the elite and is under constant security service tracking.
Thats the other side of the "Encryption is Good" for the almost elite part, contractors, leaders who think they made it to the very top, but are under constant watch.
ie if your allowed on a copy and paste GUI onto another computer and sending and getting party political/mil/gov messages from people globally its been watched and your "digital" security clearance is a long term trap. The allowed or given computer is a decades long honey trap for the user and all their international contacts.
That can be seen in the high level German gov crypto phone efforts and EU crypto fax efforts. Leaders and top embassy/political staff are handed digital junk hardware and told its "safe" and been fully tested by their own nations best. Every message then gets mirrored to 5 eye nations for free.
Some reading on the efforts
New NSA leaks show how US is bugging its European allies (1 July 2013)
http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
Embassy Espionage: The NSA's Secret Spy Hub in Berlin (October 27, 2013)
http://www.spiegel.de/internat...
That should help with the Elite, Encryption is Good, Encryption is Bad and who gets told what, told a product is secure within their own nation, who tests and signs over what hardware within a nation and what level of leadership then is allowed to "trust" that device or gets a computer system
As secure as domestic data collection was with any one of the many brands that helped with PRISM.
With two helper brands for domestic collection, the links back to the US gov will be even more secure and NSL friendly.
If it wants PRISM then no domestic issues, gov and US brands work together just fine for years.
The problem for the US gov is this method will be seen in open court over generations of cell phones.
Not every person will take a plea deal. Not every person will have all their funds frozen. Some will still have funds for legal teams and their own tech experts.
The UK and GCHQ avoided all that by just trying not to go to any court for any reason for decades. Information flowed to the gov and mil without media questions or court or public comment. No one in public or the UK legal system could work out how a case really started. Whispers about deep undercover work, informants, a super grass.. kept collect it all digital methods very well hidden.
The NSA tried to keep the same level of skill but then other parts of state and US federal gov wanted the NSA like methods to get that win in public.
Decades of hidden skills would be very public in a fews day of public court questions.
So the idea is to conscript the brand into becoming the informant and any legal team can ask away about methods, origins, how the case was constructed.. the cell phone brand will take the questions in open court.
A very public easy win but its like a digital Berlin wall, everyone sees it been built and the results in court.
The clandestine services thing the public will shy away for their easy decades of digital collect it all.
State and federal law enforcement have a winning vision of a big brother cell phone been carried around by most people, most of the time no matter how much gov code is mandated to be designed in.
So Re 'get in its way"? Will a generation be happy to carry around big gov ready phones? Stop buying? Buy other brands?
The US gov has always had all the surrounding call data, logs, calls made. Thats the designed in telco surveillance capabilities side.
A new idea might be to extend CALEA putting big gov ready code inside every US networked product by design.
Does the FBI want a back door to use on any iPhone or just this phone in particular unlocked?
The request is for a gov computer ready master key method to get into a generation of phones at a federal level and for federal help with states telco needs.
Every phone in that generation will then be open to any gov worker, contractor, other govs workers, contractors, ex staff, former staff, anyone who can pay for the services to get the same method.
Re It's not about the hack...
Its about making the PRISM material legal in any US state or federal open court. The brand and phone becomes the named informant. GPS, logs, images, movement, voice, files.
A cell phone brand can even be the origin of an entire case in open court, hiding deeper human or mil signals parallel construction.
Recall the " and the zombies would be paying customers?" quote from
iSpy: How the NSA Accesses Smartphone Data (September 09, 2013)
http://www.spiegel.de/internat...
Buy a lot of books online with your CC, ip.
Libertarian philosophies, survivalist literature, self-sufficiency, economic collapse, book of Revelation, the ever expanding role of big government, civil liberties.
Mention ongoing whistleblower news and list the project names surrounding the NSA's tasking tools, correlation and selectors. MAINWAY, IRONMAN ect.
Read local news about any events, anti war protests, campaigns with a US foreign policy connection, public meetings. Local government having a public hearing or seeking public comments?
Turn up, ensure your cell phone is always on. Be seen around the area. Get out that old, larger DSLR camera. Before, after and during the event. Walk around the event with a cell phone, park your vehicle near the event and try to interact with anyone handing out event pamphlets. Wonder around so any surveillance teams can get a good image for facial recognition.
Ensure your cell phone is tracked around the area and your vehicle registration enters a database. A few new libertarian bumper stickers bought online with a CC is always useful to make your vehicle stand out to any level of gov.
Ensure any city or state task force reports you to the local Fusion center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... for long term federal consideration.
When online try and use as many politically interesting search terms as possible everyday on the big brand search sites that collaborate so well with big gov. Fill any posts, blogs with political or keywords relating to emerging signals intelligence over the years.
Shape your own gov paperwork and help your state and federal workers create a vast digital dossier on your own terms.
Enjoy the later state or federal chatdown and post it to any good first amendment audit site.
Your federal and state gov has spent so much on its new workers and databases, why not participate and help create gov jobs.
Just enjoying the First amendment every weekend could ensure years of full employment for teams of private sector contractors watching you.
Yes the new idea is to watch for structuring transactions via suspicious activity reports. ie any regularly made deposits of any amount can induce tracking to find patterns of deposits.
The same would be done by govs for for reading lists, buying of products and services.
Re Only buy routine items online. :)
Or be seen buying into libertarian philosophies, survivalist literature, self-sufficiency, reading lists about the book of Revelation, big government, constitutional rights and civil liberties, contractors and mass surveillance.
Give the digital bait for something to track, then change up the online buying habits
The maps of the US over the years tend to show the city and state blocking lobbyist handiwork.
133 US cities now have their own broadband networks (Mar 24, 2011)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
Municipal fiber needs more FDR localism, fewer state bans ( Jan 7, 2010)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
and the efforts some states have to remove the bans
Colorado’s muni broadband ban overridden in 44 communities (Nov 6, 2015)
http://arstechnica.com/busines...
The AV product just looks for the standard factory set admin password and suggests a change as malware has been found using the default hardware password lists.
AC re ' Until then, the government will always have more power than you would like. That's life."
The US is not a Star Chamber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... allowing a gov or bureaucrat to conscript a brand to create a master key to unlock an entire generation of devices. Thats why the US has a few protections like the Fourth Amendment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution so papers can be kept secure from tyranny.
As far are the government access to telco products some readers may recall the BBC Click interview with a question about gov access: (13 April 2011)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/pro...
Would a 5 eye nation allow such a device to even be sold or connect to their national telco networks?
It would be back to a US court to show that the phone could not be decrypted for use before any public state of federal court.
Thats the big gov conscription aspect that will always win over any import efforts. Then brand and product range as sold would have to have junk encryption that any US court can get to.
A person needs end to end anonymity for a one-time-pad to work well.
If that code fragment is detected then other methods will be used to try and find the plain text data if a computer like device was used.
Or a sneak and peek visit to add a set of cameras on site hoping the code is created by hand at the same location every time.
Bespoke gov created malware gets pushed down onto the cell phone or computer just for that user and then digital one-time-pad anonymity and privacy are gone.
Re "may be the event that causes bad people to get smarter." By going public with decryption and big brand conscription every smart person of interest will have to be watched by shifts and groups of 6-10 human agents or contractors as they stop using their gov ready US cell phones. Thats a huge win for new funding and an expansion of needed law enforcement staff. Then the human teams to try and turn every convict or person who has had contact with the US justice system. Thats more staff, databases, teams working with state and city law enforcement.
That goes to the US gov demanding a universal, conscripted master key. Its not for one phone, its for generations of phones waiting in the state and federal legal system so the results can be presented in open court.
The individual is reduced to owing a gov mandated always on digital informant ready to copy their secure papers and effects at the domestic whim of a bureaucrat.
Re "It seems like the FBI wants to win the battle"
The US could have learned a lot from the UK efforts with its GCHQ help for police. In the past it was all about the clandestine services never been seen, understood and never facing court. The UK police would always win as they had all the evidence but the origins could be placed back to a human informant or a tip, slip up or other court friendly ongoing investigative powers.
The person of interest and their legal team would still feel safe with their cell phones on, computer files backed up, been listened to in their offices, cars, homes, at meetings, over weekends.
As the UK gov never showed any public skill or interest in such methods in open court, the wider media, or a secure legal setting the risk was low. Such methods seemed technically or legally beyond the scope or funding of the gov or mil or security services per crime or for pre crime efforts.
Such efforts got used all the time in Ireland but did not flow over into the wider UK due to cost or legal issues.
That kind of skill set can last generations and decades allowing a gov to have total mastery over domestic signals gathering designed into the consumer and national telco systems.
The UK had no press, fame, very few court wins based on phone/cell logs, budgets to expand, contractors to thank in public, contractors helping political leaders.
The ability to keep a secret was the UK win, not a US press conference to tell the world that encryption was junk and gov ready on every new phone.
Just years of amazing results nobody in the mainstream press or legal systems could ever understood or could work out. Court cases had human origins, ensuing ever more phone chatter got generated about other deeper informants, legal fears or a person granted immunity.
The US seems to want to tell the world it can reverse all domestic computer equipment. That will work for all sealed telco products ready for court but then what?
What interesting person is going to carry a US gov designed, conscripted and mandated court ready device? GPS beacon, voice print recorder and text, video, photo collection device with them at all times, open to any city, state, county, parish or federal bureaucrat?
A few weeks of easy court win, national fame, press and then the interesting people meet in person again with no phones for the next decades.
Re 'Seriously - the level of silliness is getting absurd." Follow the new funding:
Back to a huge budget increase to create a huge network of human informants, consultants, contractors and undercover teams to fill the totally unexpected digital gap?
Shift work of 6 to 8 human officials or new contractors to watch each interesting person vs a NSA computer keeping track 24/7. Thats a huge new budget and over time win.
A loss of NSA collection funding and political fame now flows to new winning human teams in the FBI. Cell phones going dark will have new budget winners.
The aspect slashdot should have learned about was that any code from any ip could be another ip range and have a different nation as the origin.
All the classic code review shows is all the expected code fragments, ip ranges and time of day results found point back to "expected" nations and their mil and their govs.
The idea that smarter coders are just working for other efforts, mils and govs using this surge of reported activity as cover to mask their own efforts stiff seems to be unimaginable.
Generation of efforts like the Equation Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... efforts can come from any nation or working groups between govs.
Strange how the easy public reporting efforts seem to be focused on ransomware while a lot of nations contractors and mil, gov efforts just always slip past.