Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#2From the article:
“Hundreds of people are going through it now,” an official said, adding that intelligence operatives back in Washington are very excited to find out what they have.
This suggests data were not encrypted, I guess. Amazing.
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#3The amazing part to me is that the reports say there was no internet connectivity and no phone lines running into the compound. Did they have an internal network? Or, were these all just stand-alone computers where they kept notes?
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#4Even if they were using encryption, it was probably the kind the US government can very easily break.
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#5Even if they were using encryption, it was probably the kind the US government can very easily break.
What exactly do you mean here? ROT13? Some sort of crazy arabic version of pig latin?
Just because they have DARPA doesn't mean the americans can just waltz past elliptic-curve cyphers.
EDIT: Unless you mean the 'give me the key or I'll fetch the powerdrill' kind of encryption breaking, in which case, fair point.
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#6Even if they were using encryption, it was probably the kind the US government can very easily break.
What exactly do you mean here? ROT13? Some sort of crazy arabic version of pig latin? Just because they have DARPA doesn't mean the americans can just waltz past elliptic-curve cyphers. EDIT: Unless you mean the 'give me the key or I'll fetch the powerdrill' kind of encryption breaking, in which case, fair point.
Rubber hose crypto doesn't work on corpses. I was actually quite surprised that they didn't try/manage to get more people alive...
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#7Even if they were using encryption, it was probably the kind the US government can very easily break.
At a certain point they were using proper algorhytms but not regular pgp because they would not trust american software
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/mujahideen_sec...
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#8From the article: “Hundreds of people are going through it now,” an official said, adding that intelligence operatives back in Washington are very excited to find out what they have. This suggests data were not encrypted, I guess. Amazing.
Not all super villains have tech goons that read Hacker News
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#9There was talk that this information may expose deliberate ties to the financiers of Al Quida including Saudi royalty. Not that this is new information per se, but awfully damning evidence if its found on the hard drive of bin Laden.
Re: Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of (not encrypted?) computer data.
#10Even if they were using encryption, it was probably the kind the US government can very easily break.
News reports claim that the FBI has said that they can not crack TrueCrypt.
http://news.techworld.com/security/3228701/fbi-hackers-fail-...
Some people argue that they want to encourage the use of certain encryption products (e.g. Clipper chips) while others argue they are being honest about their capabilities being limited in the face of strong encryption.