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Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

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Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#71

Post by CorsairSanglot »

rdl wrote: post #61
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

Wait...so your two options are buy from Amazon or pirate? Amazon is basically the worst corporation on the face of the earth. Supporting a small publisher -- especially a small publisher willing to publish Julian Assange, books about Bradley Manning, and books about Wikileaks, is basically a decent thing to do.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#72

Post by Myrmornis »

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…

> their #1 priority should always, always, be respecting the Constitution

Presumably their #1 priority can be specified in a more rational way without random worshipping of some old document? Other countries, not blessed with the Constitution of the USA, also have intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#73

Post by genuine »

> and if all else fails, to accelerate its self-destruction.

Unfortunately, that is how you know if someone has gone off the deep end.

I agree though that we should all be encrypting communication, but our government helped develop the methods of encryption, and some methods have been known to have backdoors: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~eroberts/cs201/projects/...

Why it is highly recommended not to implement your own encryption method, we shouldn't be using something that could easily be decrypted by the wrong people either. We need to study methods that we use extremely well, and be aware that encryption susceptible to decryption via brute-force with significant resources are just as dangerous as backdoors.

I also advocate development of wireless mesh networking technology to handle larger adhoc networks. While those that wish to spy could still become a member of an adhoc network, it would significantly complicate things for them.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#74

Post by javert »

Myrmornis wrote: post #72
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…

> their #1 priority should always, always, be respecting the Constitution Presumably their #1 priority can be specified in a more rational way without random worshipping of some old document? Other countries, not blessed with the Constitution of the USA, also have intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

No. The Constitution defines the proper form and responsibility of American government. If the Constitution falls, we no longer have legitimate government. That's historical fact.

Other governments' law enforcement agencies follow the laws of their own countries (or don't). Are you saying they shouldn't do that?

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#75

Post by moe »

ef4 wrote: post #30
hughw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alway-on encryption is necessary but not sufficient. As long as Facebook or Google have the decrypted information, you are still subject to the transnational dystopia. The other day I found this fellow's idea for a peer-to-peer social network service: http://code.google.com/p/peer-book/ "Your data is stored in a distributed fashion, across the network, so that even when you turn off your instance of PeerBook, your fr…

https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora

How on earth can you bring up diaspora in this context? Some kind of cruel joke?

I'm downvoting parent and giving you the right link: https://freenetproject.org/

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#76

Post by anigbrowl »

ef4 wrote: post #23
anigbrowl wrote: post #9

First, recall that states are systems through which coercive force flows. Factions within a state may compete for support, leading to democratic surface phenomena, but the underpinnings of states are the systematic application, and avoidance, of violence. Land ownership, property, rents, dividends, taxation, court fines, censorship, copyrights and trademarks are all enforced by the threatened application of state vio…

Your argument is a non sequitur: states are necessary, therefore states are not systems through which coercive force flows. If you want to argue that states are necessary, fine. But call a spade a spade. Can you imagine a state that doesn't wield violence? That's what a state is . The lack of clarity on this issue leads to a lot of bad conclusions. When we argue that the state should solve any particular problem, we…

Your argument is a non sequitur: states are necessary, therefore states are not systems through which coercive force flows.

I did not say that at all. I am OK with states being systems through which coercive force flows, because I think channeling and supervising said force usually results of less of it flowing than otherwise would.

Can you imagine a state that doesn't wield violence? That's what a state is.

It's hardly the only distinguishing feature. States also build infrastructure, promulgate laws, provide forums for resolution of disputes and so forth. Your argument as made here is both narrow and immature.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#77

Post by wissler »

bluedanieru wrote: post #69
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 y…

Insightful. I'm curious as to what you think are the basic human rights and the principles of the Enlightenment.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#78

Post by nob »

belorn wrote: post #51
beloch wrote: post #26

Assange certainly has a flair for the dramatic... but he doesn't understand encryption. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/wikileaks-insurance-file-decry... Wikileaks has distributed AES encrypted files that it claims are full of government secrets. They have withheld the information needed to decrypt some of those files ( although some keys have leaked from wikileaks, oddly enough) as a deterrent to persecution by govern…

The problem with one-time pads, is that they require a password with the same length as the data you want to encrypt. That mean, if you don't pre-distrubute the key as well, you are in the same boat as if you don't distribute anything at all. To give everyone the one-time pad key, its the same trouble as sending the actually data unencrypted to everyone. As a threat value, pre-releasing xor'ed data has exactly zero v…

True.

A one-time pad as a consumer encryption has yet to be realized though, even though the programming effort needed to create a system like this is low. It's even easier to use such a system in todays world of 64 GB USB drives. (64 GB could be used as a key for almost a life-time of text correspondance.)

What the public would benefit from is a system that works as follows:

- Program has a create key mode. Lets you specify key size, or use the rest of the capacity (eg. a full thumb stick).

- Creates two of these files (one for each participant).

- Has a simple interface for encrypting/decrypting content based on the key file.

- Each message is prefixed with the offset of the file

- Party 1 starts at the beginning of the file. Party 2 at the end of the file. In order to avoid resending data using the same offset. When they get close to overlapping in the middle, they create a new key.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#79

Post by chunkyslink »

blablabla123 wrote: post #11
droithomme wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Assange is still preparing for fascism." You mean the guy who is in internal exile in Britain because as a journalist he revealed war crimes committed by Britain's partner the United States? He's the guy who is delusional about the form of government that surrounds him, huh? Glad it's as simple as that.

To add some more complexity: the reason he is in a dodgy situation in the first place are rape allegations. Looking at some "leaked" parts of his biography this doesn't sound too far-fetched to me. I definitely appreciate his engagement in disclosing many interesting documents about the micro-social diplomatic environment. But after all, what about the more interesting stuff? Leaked documents from the center of the t…

There have been no charges laid against Julian Assange. The only 'dodgy situation' as you put it is that there has been so much effort to get him extradited to Sweden by a UK government who would not normally be interested in 'allegations' without substance from abroad.

Re: Julian Assange: Cryptographic Call to Arms

#80

Post by anigbrowl »

contingencies wrote: post #20
anigbrowl wrote: post #9

First, recall that states are systems through which coercive force flows. Factions within a state may compete for support, leading to democratic surface phenomena, but the underpinnings of states are the systematic application, and avoidance, of violence. Land ownership, property, rents, dividends, taxation, court fines, censorship, copyrights and trademarks are all enforced by the threatened application of state vio…

Assange speaks truth. You cannot deny the fundamentals of the state are violence. The US speaks already of a capacity for instant global weapon strikes within the hour. You claim it is wrong to question the system, implicitly suggesting there is no alternative. But anthropology shows clearly that premodern societies had more free time, greater material and economic equality. (Try 'Debt: The First 5000 Years'). You at…

You claim it is wrong to question the system, implicitly suggesting there is no alternative.

No I didn't. How can you expect me to engage with the rest of your comment in any serious fashion when you just make up claims like this?

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