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Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

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Re: Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

#21

Post by jiggy2011 »

kunai wrote: post #16
jiggy2011 wrote: post #4

Does switching to Ubuntu really help you that much? Unless there are secret NSA backdoors in Windows/OS X. Hell even under Ubuntu they could just backdoor my nvidia drivers. I would really struggle to recommend using Tor as a "daily driver" for web browsing as well. Unless we want to go back to the 56k web. Most of the others (bitcoin,social networks) rely on network effects anyway.

There aren't backdoors in OS X and Windows that are specifically designed by or for the NSA, but since we can't see about half of the source (at least in OS X) then they can exploit any backdoor that may be present without our knowledge. Ubuntu fares a bit better, but with the proprietary blobs, you never know.

I'd be curious how much work has been done to reverse engineer OS X / Windows. I can't believe that nobody has done it. And how successful these would be at finding potential backdoors?

Re: Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

#22

Post by vitriolix »

moreentropy wrote: post #13

The problem can't just be solved by simply pointing people to (random?) open source software. We still need servers as rendezvous points, and we can't expect everybody to run their own services. Properly setting up a mail server is hard. So, everybody who can should run XMPP and/or SIP servers and hand out accounts to their friends. Both telephony/messaging protocols have inherent capabilities for federating with oth…

very good points. check out guardianproject.info ... their whole mission is exactly this.

Re: Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

#23

Post by davidong »

arikfr wrote: post #3

How switching to Ubuntu will help me in this case? This makes no sense. PRISM probably monitors the network traffic that goes through the US. It makes no difference what OS you're using.

I've been thinking about reducing trust in a post-PRISM world a bit today and while switching doesn't help here currently, open source projects are at least theoretically able to prove their trustworthiness by publishing audit tools.

Say for example a distro publishes build scripts which download, verify, patch, compile and package some software using a specific toolchain, anyone could audit this via a simple hash check.

Apple and Microsoft could never prove themselves this way because they need to keep their source code a secret.

Re: Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

#24

Post by kunai »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #21
kunai wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't backdoors in OS X and Windows that are specifically designed by or for the NSA, but since we can't see about half of the source (at least in OS X) then they can exploit any backdoor that may be present without our knowledge. Ubuntu fares a bit better, but with the proprietary blobs, you never know.

I'd be curious how much work has been done to reverse engineer OS X / Windows. I can't believe that nobody has done it. And how successful these would be at finding potential backdoors?

Only a Donald Knuth-level computer scientist would be able to reverse engineer OS X to assembly, and try to figure out any backdoors from it.

Re: Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

#26

Post by neology »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #21
kunai wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't backdoors in OS X and Windows that are specifically designed by or for the NSA, but since we can't see about half of the source (at least in OS X) then they can exploit any backdoor that may be present without our knowledge. Ubuntu fares a bit better, but with the proprietary blobs, you never know.

I'd be curious how much work has been done to reverse engineer OS X / Windows. I can't believe that nobody has done it. And how successful these would be at finding potential backdoors?

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

Re: Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

#27

Post by neology »

qubitsam wrote: post #10

Before recommending Ubuntu (when the issue is, to an extent, one of privacy), let's remember this: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/richar... The discussion around it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4888851 Also, a better alternative to Skype would be Jitsi: https://jitsi.org/Main/Features

Anything better than Ubuntu?

Re: Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

#29

Post by danso »

tankbot wrote: post #19
danso wrote: post #11

One thing to consider: if you use an alternative to the major services...doesn't that make it easier to find you? You've effectively joined a much smaller haystack. I guess how much of a risk this depends on where you see the vector of attack. If you think the NSA has one decade forward on decryption ability, then what does it matter if Facebook/etc hands over the data or if you've trusted another encryption scheme?…

> if you use an alternative to the major services...doesn't that make it easier to find you? You've effectively joined a much smaller haystack. No. Because the 'haystack' you are (accidentally) referring to is a ginormous indexed/searchable database. All of their data goes to the same place, so it doesn't matter where it comes from. Your argument through analogy is not applicable but let me clarify for you: They are…

Security through obscurity is never a great mindset, but neither is the mindset that security doesn't come without significant tradeoffs, tradeoffs that may reveal you inadvertently.

And you misunderstand the analogy. They don't need to watch you having an affair (through the windows). They only need to see that you're driving to an out-of-the-way B&B. They don't even have to interrogate you directly, just any one else who comes out of that small venue. Ergo, the "haystack" is smaller.

To use another analogy: what do you think former CIA director David Petraeus was done in by? The fact that he used GMail and that activity on his account triggered an FBI omnisearch? Or that his mistress engaged in illegal activity and did not take the steps to separate her real-life identity from the anonymous GMail account?

Re: Dilute PRISM – Use Open Source Alternatives

#30

Post by HunOL »

sp332 wrote: post #17
HunOL wrote: post #15

Ubuntu phone, oh really? Where i can buy tomorrow ubuntu phone? Ubuntu? Why this distro, not openSUSE or Debian? Nothing wrong that by default ubuntu uses Amazon ads?

Ubuntu is actually working on a phone OS, and the rest aren't. http://www.ubuntu.com/phone

Working or planning to work? There no devices yet.
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