I think a better solution to say hello to NSA would be by sending a letter to your local senator (and other representatives) that you are not going to vote for them in future unless they raise their voice in the concerned house.
Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
161–170 of 195 posts
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#162This would definitely be the level of security that falls under this statement from Snowden: Q: Is it possible to put security in place to protect against state surveillance? A: "You are not even aware of what is possible. The extent of their capabilities is horrifying. We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place.…
In other words, NSA is approximately as capable as your typical plugged-in "black hat" hacker.
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#163Why doesn't Google up the security in its own apps? The government may "force" them to provide access, but can it "force" them to remove safeguards like encrypting email/chats/etc? Even if they just gave us the option to check a box, and it wasn't on by default. The problem I'm seeing with all these solutions is that they're very specific to two users, they both need to have everything set up. Well, great, the NSA wi…
can't force them not to encrypt emails but it can force them to give out the keys
for some reason, it won't let me delete my duplicate comments that were created because of errors on postings...
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#164I think just attach files full of random noise to emails.
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
"We can plant bugs in machines" to me sounds more like a clue that this guy really doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.
Weird phrasing for starters. I mean that isn't how one would describe malware or a rootkit. I can't imagine hardware would be worth the effort if you can just as easily compromise the OS with physical access. I just don't know what to make of this guys story. He has no high school diploma, started out as a security guard and was then given a diplomat cover as a system administrator? He further claims that his job as…
But unlike a rootkit, some HW listening device is resistant to OS reinstalls which I can imagine are pretty common with people that the NSA would target. And I can also imagine that it might be more 'cross-platform'.
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's Glenn either being intellectually dishonest or intellectually incompetent. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/dear-fellow-liberal2
When I read that I see Sam Harris attributing things like "honor killings" to the doctrine of Islam as if Islam is a monolithic entity. He's equating the extremists with the mainstream and that is exactly what the islamaphobes do - insist that the crazies are the ones who have the true interpretation of islam and that the vast majority of regular muslims don't count because they aren't crazy. It is kind of like sayin…
http://www.pewforum.org/Muslim/the-worlds-muslims-religion-p...
The _low_ end is 15-20% who think honor killing is rarely/sometimes/often justified. The high end is 60-70%. How is this "fringe"?
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why did he not give even a small technical overview on what they are capable of? He should've been able to given he has a lot of technical expertise and it would've helped his evidence a lot. Did they figure out how to tap complicated SSL? Is it hardware based? He gave no hints but could have easily. Instead it's this blanket statement that's supposed to imply that all encryption is pointless.
I took that to mean that they have exploits they can run once they which will let them take over your machine and install keyloggers etc. to report back any further activity. It wouldn't take much for them to purchase or develop a suite of vulnerabilities for all the major operating systems/browsers which they keep current, and once they have that any encryption is pointless as they can see what you see/type/hear. He…
Some major military contractors (Raytheon I think is one, BAH another maybe) were looking to hire security experts to find vulnerabilities. There is a robust black market for 0days and I can't imagine the govt. isn't interested in playing. Especially after the cyber-terror war drum has been beating for a while and Chinese hackers scaring everyone's grandmas (most likely articles seeded by PR agencies in preparation for a major contract award to a military industrial contractor).
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well can they do that in Richard Stallman's laptop ? If so we are doomed :)
Possibly, if they had say, a backdoor in all Intel/AMD processors. The question is what he meant by "We can plant bugs in machines."
Any experts firmware / low level OS hackers can chime in? I imagine this would be Windows focused, then I guess all bets are off. MS would surely cooperate.
Now what about an Open Source OS. NSA and DoD loves them some RHEL (Redhat Enterprise Linux). Would they pay RHEL enough to produce binaries that have backdoors in them? Yeah, CentOS compiles the sources and that's cool. But most organizations buy RHEL for support.
Well I would say they would be very stupid to do that as if it ever comes out it will immediately destroy their product.
Now, just like PRISM will most likely damage US companies using or offering cloud services, any revelation of an exploit that _could_ have been developed with cooperation form manufacturer would destroy that company's business.
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well can they do that in Richard Stallman's laptop ? If so we are doomed :)
Possibly, if they had say, a backdoor in all Intel/AMD processors. The question is what he meant by "We can plant bugs in machines."
He doesn't use an Intel or AMD processor, he uses some kind of MIPS64 processor called Longsoon.
Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I read that I see Sam Harris attributing things like "honor killings" to the doctrine of Islam as if Islam is a monolithic entity. He's equating the extremists with the mainstream and that is exactly what the islamaphobes do - insist that the crazies are the ones who have the true interpretation of islam and that the vast majority of regular muslims don't count because they aren't crazy. It is kind of like sayin…
http://www.pewforum.org/Muslim/the-worlds-muslims-religion-p... The _low_ end is 15-20% who think honor killing is rarely/sometimes/often justified. The high end is 60-70%. How is this "fringe"?
That survey is flawed because it's based on culturally influenced beliefs of Muslims in tribal-based societies where the concept of honor has a higher precedence than religion itself. I believe you would find similar results among Christian and Jewish populations in the Middle-east. For instance, in Egypt, where I've lived for a considerable time, Christians and Muslims share practically the same family values with varying degrees. If a Christian woman and Muslim man, or vice-versa, decide to elope then either of them risk being honor-killed or at the very least disowned.