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Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

ccc.de

81–90 of 169 posts

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#81
post #48

What was wrong with Corona-Warn-App? Looked amazing compared to ‎TousAntiCovid last year yet I'm learning here that it isn't improved anymore and I haven't seen ads for it anywhere. The differences between German states and the way news are communicated is so complicated, and it's been more than a year that it's like that now. As a French citizen living in Germany I can get vaccinated if I go back to France soon (the…

It is still improved. The actually also want to add this kind of check-in (almost done) but it might be blocked by apple/google as the terms of use of the contact tracing API forbids use of additional data.

As far as I know CWA will save it on the device and thus comply with all requirements for contact tracing apps.

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#82
post #24
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck. In countries like Germany or Norway there is a culture of hacker organisations sustaining themselves financially via their members. This culture doesn't exist in Sweden, and the spaces and organisations that aren't subsidised by government funds or universities all disappear after a few years. (Source: Lived in all three countries, was active in such organisations in all three countries)

Oh, there are tons of hackerspaces in Sweden. Its just that they are either tied to universities, startup clusters or for kids. I guess you were simply not in contact with the right people.

> Its just that they are either tied to universities, startup clusters or for kids.

…or lacking members. He wrote, glancing around the empty room

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#83
post #9

Is there a U.S. based Chaos Computer Club (CCC) or CCC like group?

There's places like Noisebridge (which was an absolute pleasure to visit and experience) or regional DEF CON groups.

As mentioned by others, the EFF's Electronic Frontier Alliance tries to act as a regional group for these types of things, but in my experience it's pretty dead (at least the Utah group has been completely unresponsive).

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#84
post #13

This is amazing. There should be hacker clubs in each country double checking all suspicious public procurements.

I'm part of the CCC in Hamburg We will move to stockholm and I'm thinking of creating one :)

Check out https://www.blivande.com/ Burners, artists and (I think) hackers doing stuff together in Stockholm. (I'm not in sthlm but part of the Scandinavian burning scene)

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#85
post #29

There is so much incompetency in governmental IT/software decisions and software it's actually sad. Is it a product of smart people simply not working in this sector or corruption?. It seems from the outside to be filled with imbeciles masquerading as administrators. We need to somehow make the government way more accountable, if only there was an organization that could do that, we could call it the media.

It's actually "accountability" that's a big part of the problem. Government procurement is so focused on the appearance of fairness and money saving that all other goals, like actually getting something that works, take a back seat. You end up with over-specified requirements that remove the possibility of innovative or creative solutions. Providers are treated like a commodity, where it is assumed that all will do t…

This is the best explanation for the phenomenon I've ever heard, thank you

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#86
post #29

There is so much incompetency in governmental IT/software decisions and software it's actually sad. Is it a product of smart people simply not working in this sector or corruption?. It seems from the outside to be filled with imbeciles masquerading as administrators. We need to somehow make the government way more accountable, if only there was an organization that could do that, we could call it the media.

> There is so much incompetency in governmental IT/software decisions and software it's actually sad.

Most likely because a company with lowest bid wins or a company that has connections with government, so they get selected based on friendships rather than competence. Then such company typically sends least experienced developers working for pittance and they hope project will last long enough that it gets scrapped before it gets completed, so they will not be held accountable for anything.

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#88
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with everything, except for the point about taxes. Income tax for employees, state officials („Beamte“) and self employed people in Germany is exactly the same regarding the tax rates. The difference is social insurance, especially pensions and health insurance.

And pensions, and health insurance, state officials (Beamte) get a (non small part) part of the health insurance payed by the state (at least that was the case in many state official jobs until recently). When you get old and had a not supper high paying job this can easily be as if you had gotten 50%-100% more salery!! At the same time they (state officials) complain they get to little. It's completely stupid. AND a…

To be fair: German employee protection is so strong, it's almost impossible for anyone to get fired from any company bigger than 10 employees for reasons other than committing crimes or felonies, as long as the company cannot prove that they have to let people go due to bad overall business. Even then, as an employer, you cannot simply fire the underachievers, but you have to negotiate with the works council to be able to keep the youngest, highest performers, because they have the least protection and have to fired first...

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#89
post #79
post #29

There is so much incompetency in governmental IT/software decisions and software it's actually sad. Is it a product of smart people simply not working in this sector or corruption?. It seems from the outside to be filled with imbeciles masquerading as administrators. We need to somehow make the government way more accountable, if only there was an organization that could do that, we could call it the media.

Weirdly enough, the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI), Germany's cyber security authority, is actually very good and has very competent security experts. I bet the officials never consulted them about Luca.

I've seen authorities like this "not consulted" deliberately, on the basis that there's a more expedient need for the product, than for the product to be secure.

If the experience of the procuring department is that "BSI finds everything is insecure", then you procure without letting BSI know or have a say in it, and then you look good for getting the procurement completed.

Getting cross-department cooperation on anything complex tends to be the exception rather than the rule - it's much easier for everyone to make the same (avoidable) mistakes over and over again, apparently, than it is to accept the process doesn't work and fix it.

"Intangible" non-functional requirements are simply something that don't translate well into the procurement world, and are the first thing dropped to try and lower the "headline price". Being secure enough to get past BSI is a cost that your competitor likely won't be factoring in.

Re: Luca App: CCC calls for a moratorium

#90
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes and its super easy to just create random valid qr codes: https://wolf128058.gitlab.io/schmudo2go/ also they don't have any rate limit on the sms service... so anybody can build a loop and call the sms endpoint... More fails: - https://github.com/mame82/misc/blob/master/luca_traceIds.md - https://lucatrack.de/ - development private and public key in the repo ( not harmful but a bad sign) - more that i forgot

What do these QR codes do?

The QR codes let you "check in" at venues that use Luca to make contact tracing possible.
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