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Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

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Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#61

Post by gruez »

mtgx wrote: post #37
freehunter wrote: post #5

There are certain things I cannot believe are still this difficult with as advanced as user-friendly technology is: sending files to someone else, and converting documents. Sending files to someone else is a problem with a ton of solutions, some of them better than others, but none of them actually solving the problem. Email often has size limits and spam filters block certain attachments. Dropbox is often restricted…

For sending files, Firefox Send is pretty cool and straightforward. The files are sent P2P and are E2E encrypted. I'm not sure why Mozilla hasn't added a bookmark for it in Firefox yet. https://send.firefox.com/

>The files are sent P2P

afaik they're uploaded to s3, not sent p2p.

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#62

Post by pvg »

ajross wrote: post #24
twoquestions wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody's stupid sometimes, and it only takes once to do you in.

Mostly true. Hans Reiser and Ross Ulbricht were smart folks who got caught nonetheless. But not always true. No one's figured out Satoshi Nakamoto yet.

The common trait of those two is not smarts but that they were each much less smart than they thought they were.

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#63

Post by btown »

As an aside, Adobe Acrobat Pro's PDF-to-PPTX is a godsend if you're ever given a slide deck in PDF form that you need to update/remake to certain aesthetic standards (i.e. a partner/coworker sends you something you need to update to your company's standard formatting, for distribution to management, potential investors, etc.). Images become editable, backgrounds become editable shapes, and text boxes and even tables are preserved with remarkable accuracy. Extremely useful if you ever find yourself in such a situation.

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#64

Post by stcredzero »

logfromblammo wrote: post #54
jacquesm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buffet's quote applies to non-criminals as well.

One might also argue that if you notice the cop following you and continue driving another 490 miles, you will deserve that ticket. And maybe an award for fuel economy.

A friend of mine once spotted a policeman down the road, turning on his lights. Since he was on a limited-access highway, he decided to pull over very quickly and just wait the policeman out. (They were on opposite shoulders, and the left shoulder didn't extend back to where my friend was.) The policeman got out of his car and ordered him to proceed with hand gestures. My friend decided he could be in worse trouble if he didn't.

(Yes, it was really my friend and not me.)

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#65

Post by logfromblammo »

Bucephalus355 wrote: post #3

We all leave huge incriminating paper trails to some extent. This is why privacy is so important, because we’re all committing crimes in theory. That being said Manafort looks very very guilty and his crimes, which are financially based, I think are even more reprehensible in this era of global austerity and low economic growth. Back to the privacy point, we are currently going through NIST 800-53 at work. We only ne…

No shredder can match the document-eradicating power of an incinerator.

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#66

Post by jermaustin1 »

tlarkworthy wrote: post #41
blensor wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is not as big because you don't need to have those people do monumentally stupid things all the time. It's sufficient if they do it every so often. And unless someone is an incredibly paranoid person which has the privacy routines ingrained in their DNA, everyone does make stupid mistakes every once in a while.

Dread Pirate Roberts is a good example of 99.9% doing a good job of hiding his identity but one f *up at the very beginning before he was serious undermined everything afterwards. https://www.cnn.com/2013/10/04/world/americas/silk-road-ross...

Giving your personal email away if a MONUMENTAL screw up.

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#67

Post by neilsimp1 »

mtgx wrote: post #37
freehunter wrote: post #5

There are certain things I cannot believe are still this difficult with as advanced as user-friendly technology is: sending files to someone else, and converting documents. Sending files to someone else is a problem with a ton of solutions, some of them better than others, but none of them actually solving the problem. Email often has size limits and spam filters block certain attachments. Dropbox is often restricted…

For sending files, Firefox Send is pretty cool and straightforward. The files are sent P2P and are E2E encrypted. I'm not sure why Mozilla hasn't added a bookmark for it in Firefox yet. https://send.firefox.com/

They push Pocket more than Send, it seems, and as far as I know Send is actually built by Mozilla, and Pocket isn't. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#68

Post by scblock »

ajross wrote: post #16
socalnate1 wrote: post #2

This is sort of an aside to the article; but it boggles my mind how many people in the business world view PDF's as secure, unalterable documents.

No, Manafort knew what he was doing here, and was doing it for technically sound (albeit legally fraudulent) reasons: Word documents, unlike PDFs[1], store editting history. Manafort knew this, and wanted to evade that tracking. Where he fell down was in the actual conversion step, and in failing to realize that his email to Gates about the conversion were themselves a history of the edit. But his technical instincts…

PDF/A is not typically the standard choice for exporting tools, and it is certainly not a stateless representation of printed documents. PDFs, including PDF/A documents, can and do store extensive metadata, and can include attached files. PDF/A is intended for long-term archiving, not security.

Metadata can be removed, and PDF signing can cryptographically prove a file has not been edited or modified, but it is similarly not typically the standard choice for a conversion tool.

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#69

Post by hapnin »

mtgx wrote: post #37
freehunter wrote: post #5

There are certain things I cannot believe are still this difficult with as advanced as user-friendly technology is: sending files to someone else, and converting documents. Sending files to someone else is a problem with a ton of solutions, some of them better than others, but none of them actually solving the problem. Email often has size limits and spam filters block certain attachments. Dropbox is often restricted…

For sending files, Firefox Send is pretty cool and straightforward. The files are sent P2P and are E2E encrypted. I'm not sure why Mozilla hasn't added a bookmark for it in Firefox yet. https://send.firefox.com/

Signal is also an excellent p2p e2e encrypted file sharing service.

Re: Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Converting PDFs to Word

#70

Post by Strom »

staunch wrote: post #43

This is an example of bad technology failing its user. These programs should protect user privacy by stripping identifying information by default, allowing the user the option to preserve it. All technology should protect its users by default, otherwise everyone is at risk, not just the bad guys.

> This is an example of bad technology failing its user.

I don't think that's fair to say. You can literally import PDF files in Word via the most common File > Open dialog. [1] You can also save as PDF in Word via the File > Save As dialog. [2] These are not exactly some obscure hidden functions.

--

[1] https://support.office.com/en-us/article/edit-pdf-content-in...

[2] https://support.office.com/en-us/article/save-or-convert-to-...

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