Live data from Hacker News

Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

blog.cryptographyengineering.com

201–210 of 244 posts

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Europeans are too weak for freedom that is their perogative We can legally drink before the age of 21 because we are able to control ourselves. We can have sex between 14 and 16 years, because we are able to control ourselves. We don't shoot other people in school when we are upset, because we are able to control ourselves. Tell me more about your strength... https://i.imgur.com/pmQWG4F.jpg

Each of those minor freedoms pales in comparison to the freedom to speak your mind or resist tyranny. What I have seen of European society, Europeans are content to have a boot on their throat and make some token effort to appear free.

I vouched for these comments because, while perhaps nearer to one extreme, I believe this perspective deserves to be heard.

Also:

> And an orator said, Speak to us of Freedom.

And he answered:

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.

You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?

And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.

And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.

And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.

And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#202
https://archive.org/details/PikeCommitteeReports/page/n19

>NSA's work necessarily brings it in possession of the private communications of Americans. This is so because in order for NSA to monitor international lines of communications for foreign intelligence, NSA must intercept all communications transmitted over such links.

...

>First, it suggests that NSA is able monitor virtually every international communication entering or leaving the United States. At present, some 24 million telegrams and 50 million telex (teletype) messages enter, leave, and transit the United States annually, and most of these are sent or received by private citizens. Millions of additional messages are transmitted over leased lines, including millions of computer data transmissions electronically entering and leaving the country each year. International telephone calls are yet another potential source of intelligence.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#203
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> last time we in Europe experimented with unadulterated free speech, and got Hitler and WW2 as a result We also needed Americans to save us Europeans from those other Europeans.

> last time we in Europe experimented with unadulterated free speech, and got Hitler and WW2 as a result Aside from being really smug about Europe's supposed superiority today, this comment is just factually misleading. For one thing, it wasn't "unadulterated free speech" that got Hitler into a position of dictatorial power, it was backroom politics, legal manipulation, and finally laws and a German constitution that…

> You actually have the whole thing about the value of rigidly preserved freedoms exactly backwards in your claim about Hitler and free speech.

Not my claim, it was the GP's claim and I was also disagreeing with it.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#204
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, the equivalent of IME is not present in all AMD processors, only (maybe) those with integrated graphic chips ? But overall, yeah, Europe should just create their own chip industry, it's too critical to leave it to others...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Platform_Security_Processo...

Aw crap, they are in all Ryzens now ? Hopefully my 8-core Piledriver will last me a decade...

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#205
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I think the new consensus is that all systems are vulnerable (obviously true if all systems have users with access, whom may be compromised) - so not layers: compartments (and need to know;need to access). I believe this is part of eg google/alphabet's new model: no hard wall, soft "inside" (egg model). Just stand alone secure sub-systems with ACL (access control lists) mediating access on a user-by-user, sub-sys…

Virtualization, privilege management, etc. are still another layer.

Not a different organizational layer, just a different techincal layer though.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, the equivalent of IME is not present in all AMD processors, only (maybe) those with integrated graphic chips ? But overall, yeah, Europe should just create their own chip industry, it's too critical to leave it to others...

Ironically enough we (the UK) actually had a massive input in the current chip landscape via ARM until the government allowed it to be sold to a foreign buyer. You have to wonder if the French government would have allowed the sale (as an example). Seems like the conservatives don't give a shit about strategic national companies as long as the cheques clear.

Are you aware that the French government allowed the sale of the maker of turbines for their nuclear submarines, aircraft carrier, and reactors ?

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” I find this sentence interesting because it is very specific to the American public. I am European and personally I care a lot more about privacy than free speech, and America's obsession with free speech boggles my mind. It might hav…

Free speech is not responsible for WWII at all?! You forget that Hitler's ideas were popular at the time - that's why he was elected. Slowly but surely it was the free speech of Jews, their very ability to combat the incoming tyranny before it was to late, was clamped down on. As such, censorship was quite popular. Free speech levels the playing field between government and people.

OT: You for sure know that the 'Duce del Fascismo' was in power as a Dictator since 1925 - and the fascists takeover state power in Kingdom of Italy in 1922, not ?

(Quoting: //wiki/Mussolini)

regards from germany (-;

Edited: Typo

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#209
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can read your WhatsApp messages on your phone and you don't control the WhatsApp binary... then Facebook can backdoor WhatsApp to read the decrypted message.

Again, that would mean that he deliberately, explicitly and unnecessarily lied to Congress. That would pretty much require him to be an idiot. He is many things but that's not one of them. I'm not suggesting that no-one can read them. I have no idea. I am saying that his testimony makes me very comfortable that Facebook is not because he has way more to lose from lying than from not in those circumstances.

Your argument here is that you trust Mark Zuckerberg's statement because Mark Zuckerberg wouldn't lie, because if Mark Zuckerberg lied, he would get into lots of trouble, and therefore to avoid getting into lots of trouble, Mark Zuckerberg obviously tells the truth.

I have trouble with this logic. Also, I'm not quite clear - what are the consequences for lying to Congress?

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#210

Snowden's revelations proved once again that conspiracies are all false, because it is literally impossible for large numbers of people to keep their mouth shut. Exactly as we're told on forums, exactly as we're told on TV. This is how you know Epstein is also innocent and why it won't be investigated, because we know people cannot keep silent about committing crimes, therefore we know no crimes were committed.

I think you did not want to state Epstein is innocent right? That would go counter to your prior point. And yes, conspiracy theorists don't have an accurate appreciation of how hard it is to manage projects and keep them secret.

Are you saying that conspiracies don't exist because secrets are hard to keep?
Post reply on HN