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Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

larrysanger.org

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Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#141

Post by fenomas »

justinjlynn wrote: post #80
rudolfwinestock wrote: post #24

Janie Crane: “An off switch?” Metrocop: “She'll get years for that. Off switches are illegal!” —Max Headroom, season 1, episode 6, “The Blanks” https://www.maxheadroom.com/index.php?title=Episode_ABC.1.6:...

Max Headroom was an extremely subversive program and I continue to be amazed it was actually greenlit, produced and broadcast on mainstream television - in the United States for primetime broadcast, even!

There was a great article some time back about the hisstory behind it. A lot of the episodes satirized the show's own network and specific network executives - some of which flew under the radar and some of which probably hastened the show's demise, etc.

Fake edit: I think this is it:

https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8285139/max-headroom-oral-...

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#142

Post by monocasa »

craftyguy wrote: post #137
monocasa wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, 'organic' as a certification doesn't really mean anything. And UL was kind of a joke from having dealt with them personally.

> And UL was kind of a joke from having dealt with them personally. UL may be a 'joke', but it does keep a lot of sketchy electronics out of the market (at least in the US). In my personal experience dealing with them, bad hardware design is more to blame for a bad experience with UL than the UL process itself (which, is brutally long, but just might be for a reason..)

We just had a situation where they insisted on a design that they admitted was less safe in context but fit their standards better.

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#143

Post by rolph »

acct1771 wrote: post #131
e9 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me more about how I can get involved

Explore and evaluate meshnet projects, find one that you like, and educate others about them. Set up the hardware, link up with existing mesh if you're in a dense enough area. Push federated services like Matrix and ActivityPub based services like Mastadon, so when it's time to go mesh, people don't laugh when you say "It doesn't reach Facebook/Insta".

and check out the Project-Byzantium.

https://github.com/Byzantium/Byzantium

https://project-byzantium.org/

https://hackaday.com/2015/04/28/meshing-pis-with-project-byz...

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#144

Post by stcredzero »

rudolfwinestock wrote: post #24

Janie Crane: “An off switch?” Metrocop: “She'll get years for that. Off switches are illegal!” —Max Headroom, season 1, episode 6, “The Blanks” https://www.maxheadroom.com/index.php?title=Episode_ABC.1.6:...

“Doctor Duncan’s Video Symptom Show!” — Not just subversive, but completely “punk” in outlook.

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#145

Post by Scoundreller »

cmrx64 wrote: post #76
btashton wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do I trust my WiFi cards disable pin, but not the "soft button" on my laptop that triggers it via the OS? I get that there is more software when it goes through the OS, but I trust that a whole lot more than the firmware on the WiFi card. This is from the same group that tries to explain how they don't use proprietary firmware blogs by using the Redpine chips just because the blog is already flashed on it rather…

At least in the case of Purism’s Librem 5 (unreleased), it’s not a disable pin, it’s removing power entirely from the wifi peripheral. Which is a step up for sure.

That may not work for low power electronics: they can gather enough power to operate from I/O lines that have pull-up resistors on them.

When this goes really wrong, the chip can burn out.

Some satellite provider in the past tried to exploit differences between genuine cards and fake cards based on Atmel 8515 simulator boards. The fix was to lift the VCC pin of the 8515.

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#146

Post by Scoundreller »

zrm wrote: post #94
wutbrodo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my first thought when seeing Sanger's initial tweets about this. Someone else replied to the tweet pointing it out, and his response was along the lines of "that's not an off switch, it just blocks it". I'm not really sure why blocking the camera isn't strictly _better_ than a physical off switch, at the very least from a trust perspective

Depending on what the cover is made of, it may not be opaque to infrared, which some cameras support. Also, microphones.

Should be easy enough to test with a remote control.

I just learned than IR-transparent plastics are more common than I thought: they reduce heat load and make the plastic last longer.

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#147

Post by Scoundreller »

askvictor wrote: post #127
HNKingpin wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should be able to see the effects, no? At least in cameras (the light won't be flashing).

Microphones are much more the worry; you can't cover them up like a camera, and are omnidirectional.

MacBook airs have tiny holes near the microphone. If it’s plugged, it’s very difficult to hear what’s going on.

Other macs may be like this too.

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#148

Post by Scoundreller »

WalterBright wrote: post #98

Also a physical switch to enable writing to the flash rom. That way, malware infections to standalone devices won't survive a reboot.

Better yet, some kind of physical flag when a write is being attempted. When it flags unexpectedly, you know the logs are worth looking at.

Pirates used to install locks on their satellite receivers to prevent countermeasures, or at least defer problematic updates.

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#149

Post by ddingus »

rolph wrote: post #50
rudolfwinestock wrote: post #24

Janie Crane: “An off switch?” Metrocop: “She'll get years for that. Off switches are illegal!” —Max Headroom, season 1, episode 6, “The Blanks” https://www.maxheadroom.com/index.php?title=Episode_ABC.1.6:...

a real life blank reg here. I live in an RV operate a MESHNET and do everthing i can to foster a common persons free decentralized infrastructure. As mentioned elsewhere ive been taping cameras and stabbing microphones for years now.

Thank you. Depending on how things go, more of us than we think will join you.

Solidarity

Re: Vendors must start adding physical on/off switches to devices that can spy on us

#150

Post by ddingus »

e9 wrote: post #135
acct1771 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explore and evaluate meshnet projects, find one that you like, and educate others about them. Set up the hardware, link up with existing mesh if you're in a dense enough area. Push federated services like Matrix and ActivityPub based services like Mastadon, so when it's time to go mesh, people don't laugh when you say "It doesn't reach Facebook/Insta".

Thank you. Would you be so kind to write a blog post about this?

Or just a longer form comment.
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