Not surprised.
AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
101–110 of 233 posts
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#102One thing I see people saying on here is that people should care....and I do...but I don't know _what_ to do with it! Can someone show/tell me what I, an average person, can do? It feels a bit overwhelming and things like this point out how powerless we really are. I hope I'm wrong and there are things we can do...I just don't know what they are. EDIT - Asking two more specific questions: 1. What can we do technicall…
We could use GPG for normal e-mail correspondence. But I really don't know if this would do anything more than delay any problems. In a similar vein, I've deleted all the trusted root CA certs from my computer, and am now marking individual certs trusted as I hit them. Not fail-safe, but safer, I think.
Haha, this doesn't make any sense. How can you possibly know the real cert from the one generated by NSA?
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#103One thing I see people saying on here is that people should care....and I do...but I don't know _what_ to do with it! Can someone show/tell me what I, an average person, can do? It feels a bit overwhelming and things like this point out how powerless we really are. I hope I'm wrong and there are things we can do...I just don't know what they are. EDIT - Asking two more specific questions: 1. What can we do technicall…
We could use GPG for normal e-mail correspondence. But I really don't know if this would do anything more than delay any problems. In a similar vein, I've deleted all the trusted root CA certs from my computer, and am now marking individual certs trusted as I hit them. Not fail-safe, but safer, I think.
>In a similar vein, I've deleted all the trusted root CA certs from my computer, and am now marking individual certs trusted as I hit them. Not fail-safe, but safer, I think.
Excuse my ignorance, could you tell why it's useful to remove the certs from a PC. I've heard about root certs a couple of times already but don't understand what they really are.
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Besides using SSH and VPN more, the only thing I can do is avoid ATT. I was on T-Mobile for years (out of ATT spite) until Verizon got the iPhone and I jumped within the week. I also spent a lot more money on internet using alternatives to ATT DSL (although I doubt my information was more secure from that choice).
Tweedledum vs. Tweedledee
worse than that- AT&T is buying T-mobile apparently.
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#105This is literally years-old information. I was aware of and hollering about this at people as a highschooler at debate and speech tournaments. Same thing then as now, no one cares, or those that do care don't care enough. Besides, who cares if you have nothing to hide. Right?
Even if you have nothing to hide, doesn't mean that you should lose your presumed innocence.
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#1062012 secure communication: handwritten note tucked into some junk sent airmail
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#107One thing I see people saying on here is that people should care....and I do...but I don't know _what_ to do with it! Can someone show/tell me what I, an average person, can do? It feels a bit overwhelming and things like this point out how powerless we really are. I hope I'm wrong and there are things we can do...I just don't know what they are. EDIT - Asking two more specific questions: 1. What can we do technicall…
Vote, for one thing. Geez. How, difficult is that? Oh wait, you guys only have one option laid down as only two parties... tough. Before you start to disagree, name one candidate that had "end patriotic act" on their government plan.
As I recall, Kucinich, Gravel, and Paul all did.
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Freenet, Phantom or Tor. Pick one and make it easier for people to use. Designing a whole new system isn't what we need, a "just works" system is.
How do you know that the NSA isn't listening to those? It would seem more appropriate to make public-key encryption easier to use. There are already well-defined ways to use it with email, and there's OTR for IM that could be applied to multiple protocols. Granted, only the contents of the communications are hidden in these cases, but that's a big step forwards.
Everyone is listening to TOR, always ensure that encryption is in use. Always ensure encryption is in use anyways with anything important.
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try doing a trace route to several different sites on the internet, you'll find that -- so long as your traffic is hitting the US at some point -- your information is crossing AT&T's networks.
Not to nitpick but the article says that the sniffing is on "traffic to and from AT&T customers". So it is not clear whether this applies to all traffic through AT&T routers, or only traffic to and from AT&T customers.
This applies to a large majority of traffic in and to, and even through, the United States. Because of the way traffic 'finds the quickest (or best) route possible' you're almost guaranteed to pass through one of their points of presence.
Since this article was published it's likely that other providers were pushed into doing the same thing. If I'm not mistaken, there was even an exec. shake-up at Verizon as a result of them not wanting to concede to the NSA's demands.
Re: AT&T has a fiberoptic splitter copying our data to NSA
#110This is literally years-old information. I was aware of and hollering about this at people as a highschooler at debate and speech tournaments. Same thing then as now, no one cares, or those that do care don't care enough. Besides, who cares if you have nothing to hide. Right?
I knew about it too and I am always baffled at the general population's indifference to it. I guess when you are in debt, about to lose your house, your job, your health insurance, you don't really give a crap if Uncle Sam looks through your emails ... ?
Understand that a lack of privacy isn't a problem until it's a problem, e.g. someone has something against you and needs something to wield against you. The government & large corps. will happily use propaganda against you, and it's easier for them to find dirt on you with little to no privacy.
Think of it this way, the average person has something in their past they're probably not happy about that could be misused against them in a political way, if say, they ever wanted to be involved in politics. Enemies will use this, and enemies now have all of the data they want.