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Indian High Commission to use typewriters for sensitive information

theage.com.au

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Re: Indian High Commission to use typewriters for sensitive information

#41

Post by jff »

ginko wrote: post #7
iamshs wrote: post #3

Ah. How are they gonna transmit data? What a temporary solution to a permanent problem, using a technology that must have been cracked a century ago. Btw why would you go outside to discuss private matters? Wow. Now instead of playing into one agency's hand, play into all world's. Especially, now that everybody knows India discusses private matters in gardens. Horrific. India should totally adopt lavabit. Incompetent…

> Ah. How are they gonna transmit data? If there only were some sort of non-electronic version of email.

Or even an electronic device capable of digitizing a sheet of paper and sending it over some communication system such as a phone line. It would make facsimiles of the original... I guess we could call it a facs machine for short?

Re: Indian High Commission to use typewriters for sensitive information

#44

Post by r0h1n »

Daniel_Newby wrote: post #33
r0h1n wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've got missiles, nukes, a dirty little war with Pakistan, and many regional political challenges. It is not some lolcat site that takes PayPal, it is armies and central bank policies. In short, like the USA, which does all of these at far greater scale? > A little hate is warranted. And apparently, a little racism and bigotry.

I agree! It is exactly like the USA! Like the USA, the Indian foreign service needs to use modern security techniques. Not cargo culting with typewriters and walks in the park like a bad movie script. Indian is not a race or even an ethnicity. It is a geopolitical affiliation, like Londoner. Nor am I a bigot. If I could read Hindi, I could point you to the Indian IT discussion forums where the thousands of competent…

> Like the USA, the Indian foreign service needs to use modern security techniques.

Absolutely, but as another HN user already replied to you:

> Your comment is good. "Apu Fuck-knuckles" is not. You should change it while you can still edit. It completely occludes your otherwise decent comment.

And please stop with the pointless arguments that "India isn't a race or even an ethnicity" (it isn't, but that's irrelevant) to somehow prove your original comment wasn't racist. By that logic, no one can ever be racist to Indians, because, hey, Indians don't have a race!

Re: Indian High Commission to use typewriters for sensitive information

#45

Post by yashg »

iamshs wrote: post #3

Ah. How are they gonna transmit data? What a temporary solution to a permanent problem, using a technology that must have been cracked a century ago. Btw why would you go outside to discuss private matters? Wow. Now instead of playing into one agency's hand, play into all world's. Especially, now that everybody knows India discusses private matters in gardens. Horrific. India should totally adopt lavabit. Incompetent…

//How are they gonna transmit data// Pigeons of course!

Re: Indian High Commission to use typewriters for sensitive information

#46

Post by dingaling »

As an aside, during the Cold War, Soviet embassies abroad used manual typewriters for all sensitive information due to the various ways in which electronic typewriters could be bugged.

For an example of the sophistication of such attacks, see the Project GUNMAN document on the NSA's history subsite:

http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/center_crypt_h...

For seven years the Soviets had bugged IBM Selectric typewriters in the US embassy in Moscow. The bugging device was remarkable, keying-off the magnetic flux of the machine's operation and transmitting this data by burst radio transmission.

Re: Indian High Commission to use typewriters for sensitive information

#47

Post by nangia »

r0h1n wrote: post #8
iamshs wrote: post #3

Ah. How are they gonna transmit data? What a temporary solution to a permanent problem, using a technology that must have been cracked a century ago. Btw why would you go outside to discuss private matters? Wow. Now instead of playing into one agency's hand, play into all world's. Especially, now that everybody knows India discusses private matters in gardens. Horrific. India should totally adopt lavabit. Incompetent…

Yahoo! and Google ids are very widely used across the full spectrum of government and bureaucracy in India, in large parts because the official email offered by government body NIC is horribly unusable. Take a look at the email ids for officials, including cabinet ministers, in India's Ministry for Communications and IT: http://deity.gov.in/content/people-and-offices Aside from being a massive security risk it's also…

Embarrassing indeed. They were mulling stopping govt employees to stop using gmail and yahoo. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-08-30/news... . But I guess the education has to start from Minister of Communication & IT who is using a gmail address.

Re: Indian High Commission to use typewriters for sensitive information

#48

Post by Daniel_Newby »

r0h1n wrote: post #23
Daniel_Newby wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am neither racist nor bigoted. What I am is opposed to spacefaring nuclear powers who are utterly incompetent at their jobs. They put all our lives in danger. If the Brits pulled this crap I would insult them with "Johnny Fuck-knuckles". (For example, "I am staggered that Johnny Fuck-knuckles would send agents to fling around office equipment at the Guardian's offices.")

I'm sorry sir, but you clearly are both racist and bigoted without apparently seeming to realize it. "The Apu travesty" - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/16/theaput...

I'm racist for making fun of the embassy security chief because you do not like a Simpsons character. I do not know whether to laugh or cry.

Re: Indian High Commission to use typewriters for sensitive information

#50

Post by auctiontheory »

menealo wrote: post #38

A couple of you have mentioned the traceability of typewriters as a downside. In fact that is a primary reason for using them. Like a gun, every typewriter has unique quirks that can be used to uniquely identify content typed on that machine. In the event of a leak, the Russians (for example) hope to use this forensic info to identify the leaker. The general knowledge of this acts as a deterrent. Moreover, it's a com…

Not discussing serious/legal issues over email is SOP at large companies, at least in my experience. Not because we thought we were doing anything wrong - it's just what the lawyers advise you.
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