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Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

cryptome.org

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Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#61

Post by rdl »

CorsairSanglot wrote: post #42

Here's another excerpt from "Cypherpunks" at Salon: http://www.salon.com/2012/12/02/julian_assange_the_web_can_c... You can only buy this book direct from the publisher. Amazon isn't carrying it.

You can also find it on popular torrent sites, as information wants to be free. (I would have bought it if it had been on Amazon, but, well.)

1dc2e5b6f0d5036a182e85ab34da839d15eaf1ed cypherpunks.epub

5d546aaa83aebd43a2342f6dc737d271a34ff684 cypherpunks.mobi

ccaf1c45fc31633c9728dcd2cd4545b55a27be7c cypherpunks.pdf

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#62

Post by DanBC »

baddox wrote: post #54
doe88 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If he used a one-time-pad (Vernam cipher) and kept the key on his person he'd be in a far better position, but he's apparently too stupid to do this. How do you use a one-time pad? A 1.4 GB key... Yeahhhhhh, very practical. edit: and btw I hope you're also confident on the quality of your RNG to output 1.4 GB of random bytes.

I don't get it. You seem to be inferring that it's impractical to store a couple of gigabytes on your person.

I've changed my mind.

The problem isn't with storing that 1.4 GB, it's with distributing it quickly to very many people.

Something much smaller is just a copy-pastable string that'll find its way into Wikipedia edit summaries or onto t-shirts or whatever.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#63

Post by georgeorwell »

mtgx wrote: post #19
georgeorwell wrote: post #15

This kind of over-the-top writing confirms what I already thought, which is that despite whatever good he might do in terms of exposing corrupt governments in the world, Julian Assange is just desperate for attention. Being this paranoid he should be advocating "post-quantum cryptography", i.e. cryptographic methods that are secure even once somebody develops a quantum computer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-qua…

Nice username you got there. So you're saying this all conspiracy theory stuff? I think we've gotten way passed the point where the fact that the government monitors everyone online is just a conspiracy theory.

Thanks :) I don't think it's a conspiracy theory, I just think that the way he frames it is a bit overly dramatic. Personally I just try to stay relatively anonymous and I operate under the assumption that whatever I say or do is basically public information. I can't be bothered with encryption when I'm talking to my friends because those conversations usually consist of things like, "Where do you want to eat?"

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#64

Post by DanBC »

jackfoxy wrote: post #60
[deleted] wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

ANU claims to have a quantum number generator available over the internet for free http://qrng.anu.edu.au/index.php Interfaces in several languages already available, including an F# interface I published yesterday https://github.com/jackfoxy/RandomBitsSolution I'm not qualified to judge the efficacy of the ANU generator, but I suspect it is good.

Thanks for that; good sources of random numbers are always appreciated.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#65

Post by mtgx »

scarmig wrote: post #17

A sufficiently motivated government has a nearly infinite amount of tools available for breaking encryption. Ignoring the possibility that it might know proprietary weaknesses to various systems (a hypothesis that is unknowable), there's just so much you need to secure at each node in a computer system. Are you personally sure no backdoors exist in the physical hardware you use? In the operating system you use? In th…

In Cory Doctorow's talk at Google, he said that all routers today have interception technology in them. It's only a matter of being enabled or not in some countries or in others. But it seems so many have asked for it, that they don't even bother to build routers without that interception technology in them, so now their default router has interception built-in by default.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYXBJOFgeI

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#66

Post by coopdog »

I think his call to action at the end is too abstract. It's important to understand that there is a problem, but the solution lies in understanding why the government is the way it is and why people vote to have such a government (fear).

The battle is winning the minds of the average person, by showing them that an encrypted, unmonitored, uncensored internet is in their best interests and not something to fear.

Or in the worst case, show that an all powerful (and therefore eventually corrupt) government is the greater of two evils. The proper tool for this is probably cheap, scalable marketing stunts and compelling media that spells this out in layman's terms.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#67

Post by revelation »

mtgx wrote: post #13

I think this is very relevant here - interview with the NSA whistleblower, William Binney, on how NSA is storing every post people are making online, so they (and FBI) can use it later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuET0kpHoyM No wonder NSA and FBI want warrantless access to private companies by lobbying for new laws like CISPA, and trying to build backdoors in services like Facebook, Skype, Twitter etc. They want…

I think the point is democratic states should (need) not have intelligence agencies with unlimited powers. They corrupt the state as they establish themselves as a central pillar of power (next to the military and the government).

They don't even have any historical roots in western political systems. The country with the claim to that is Russia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okhrana), where they were commonly used to quell internal unrest and combat opposition.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#68

Post by xfs »

mtgx wrote: post #13

I think this is very relevant here - interview with the NSA whistleblower, William Binney, on how NSA is storing every post people are making online, so they (and FBI) can use it later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuET0kpHoyM No wonder NSA and FBI want warrantless access to private companies by lobbying for new laws like CISPA, and trying to build backdoors in services like Facebook, Skype, Twitter etc. They want…

They don't mean to grab particular information about every individual. They want to ensure completeness of their data mining results.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#69

Post by bluedanieru »

mtgx wrote: post #13

I think this is very relevant here - interview with the NSA whistleblower, William Binney, on how NSA is storing every post people are making online, so they (and FBI) can use it later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuET0kpHoyM No wonder NSA and FBI want warrantless access to private companies by lobbying for new laws like CISPA, and trying to build backdoors in services like Facebook, Skype, Twitter etc. They want…

Forget about the Constitution. Rather, they should respect basic human rights and the principles of the Enlightenment. All this focus Americans put on their Constitution makes it easier for their government to become oppressive, because it encourages complacency. As though you could write the perfect set of laws, that you could define the perfect set of operating principles for your government, and in that way free yourself of tyranny forever and guarantee a free and open society for you and all your descendants. No, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#70

Post by tptacek »

mtgx wrote: post #65
scarmig wrote: post #17

A sufficiently motivated government has a nearly infinite amount of tools available for breaking encryption. Ignoring the possibility that it might know proprietary weaknesses to various systems (a hypothesis that is unknowable), there's just so much you need to secure at each node in a computer system. Are you personally sure no backdoors exist in the physical hardware you use? In the operating system you use? In th…

In Cory Doctorow's talk at Google, he said that all routers today have interception technology in them. It's only a matter of being enabled or not in some countries or in others. But it seems so many have asked for it, that they don't even bother to build routers without that interception technology in them, so now their default router has interception built-in by default. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYXBJOFgeI

Sigh. Routers are an interception technology.
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