I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
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Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#2Fun story but the fact that he totally lost touch with his childhood friend over something so silly makes me sad.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#3This story (assuming it's true) should serve as an excellent example of why you need privacy even if you think that you don't. In peace time the NSA is only looking for "terrorist" and leaves everyone alone, but in case of war they would start creating lists for any and everything. All it takes is one "tough" agent trusting their gut feeling/algorithm based on your browsing history and shopping habits to put a target on your back and you are done.
EDIT: Replacing "if there's any truth to it" by "assuming it's true". I did not mean to imply that the author made up the whole story and thought both expressions were equivalent.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#4This story (assuming it's true) should serve as an excellent example of why you need privacy even if you think that you don't. In peace time the NSA is only looking for "terrorist" and leaves everyone alone, but in case of war they would start creating lists for any and everything. All it takes is one "tough" agent trusting their gut feeling/algorithm based on your browsing history and shopping habits to put a target…
Combined with a continual state of "war on terror" and a post-conventional-warfare world, this time is basically all the time anyway.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#5Be sure to read the follow-up (https://web.stanford.edu/~learnest/cyclops/bash1.htm) about the challenges the author faced in trying to help move forward a reasonably safe standard for bicycle helmets.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#6This story (assuming it's true) should serve as an excellent example of why you need privacy even if you think that you don't. In peace time the NSA is only looking for "terrorist" and leaves everyone alone, but in case of war they would start creating lists for any and everything. All it takes is one "tough" agent trusting their gut feeling/algorithm based on your browsing history and shopping habits to put a target…
The "if there is any truth to it" remark was unnecessary. The author was very well known on the net when it was a much smaller place (the old Usenet days), and implying that he made it up is, to say the least, impolite.
His Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Earnest
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#7This story (assuming it's true) should serve as an excellent example of why you need privacy even if you think that you don't. In peace time the NSA is only looking for "terrorist" and leaves everyone alone, but in case of war they would start creating lists for any and everything. All it takes is one "tough" agent trusting their gut feeling/algorithm based on your browsing history and shopping habits to put a target…
relevant, and worth rereading: https://jacquesmattheij.com/if-you-have-nothing-to-hide/
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#8No post body was provided.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#9No post body was provided.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#10So... the headline invokes an inappropriate image. The author attracted the attention of the FBI in 1942, when "cryptography" meant wartime codebreaking, and his amateur cypher got lost and then found and turned in by a genuinely concerned citizen.
I mean, OK. Sure, it's bad that kids interested in math get caught up in this. But come on, it was the middle of the biggest war in history and real spies were indeed doing real work with codes like that. This says nothing about modern enforcement regimes, nor should it.