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Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

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Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

#31

Post by iwr »

The military could issue USB storage devices and identity tokens that keep their information internally encrypted and which only work on sirpnet-trusted computers.

Scenario: Anything copied to the USB device is internally encrypted, offline, with one of the military's public keys. This process requires no network-side authentication, but would require the soldier's "identity key" to also be plugged in and "sign" the contents.

Putting the storage device in a non-trusted computer means the contents are not retrievable.

To decrypt the contents of the device, you have to first authenticate to sirpnet from a trusted computer. It's then and only then that the computer is allowed to unlock the information on the removable drive.

This method is not safe to hardware reverse-engineering, but should be safe enough for operational use.

Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

#32

Post by ThomPete »

nl wrote: post #13

It's worth noting that this (reduction in the efficiency of internal communications) is exactly what Assange wanted: The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulti…

This is probably the best piece I have read in a long long time.

No matter what one might think about Assange the person and his style, his systems thinking is brilliant.

Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

#33

Post by roel_v »

rbranson wrote: post #5
maqr wrote: post #3

> But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial. I'm pretty sure anyone stealing the data is already risking a court martial. If the secret files are really so wide open that they're just counting on people not being able to take them, then there's some much larger problems that they better start addressing. Also, I…

I think it's pretty damning to the military that they have such huge issues with their secret data. Relatively pedestrian measures required by standards like PCI-DSS could increase the security of these systems many-fold.

I think this is understating the difficulties, and the underlying issues, the military faces. The problem comes from inherent tensions between two goals: secrecy on the one hand, efficient data dissemination on the other. You can have one or the other, but not both at the same time. So the state of the arts moves back and forth between the two.

Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

#35

Post by nl »

ccollins wrote: post #23
nl wrote: post #13

It's worth noting that this (reduction in the efficiency of internal communications) is exactly what Assange wanted: The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulti…

That article is enlightening - it changed my take on Assange from "guy who is really good at disseminating classified information" to "guy who is really good at executing a well articulated plan to reduce secrecy in government". These few lines sum it up nicely: Because we all basically know that the US state — like all states — is basically doing a lot of basically shady things basically all the time, simply reveali…

Yes, I found it very enlightening, and I developed a lot more respect for Assange's after reading it - even if I don't agree with him all the time.

He really isn't just randomly dumping documents - there is a very deliberate methodology to it.

There was a good discussion on that article on HN a few days ago.

Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

#36

Post by CallMeV »

Of course they could just tag all authorised USB drives with RFID chips with unique ID codes matching the owners they are assigned to and their clearance levels, and equip their machines and the installations with RFID scanners designed to both detect the RFID and also to verify that the chip matches the drive being used.

If the USB doesn't have the RFID, or it doesn't match the carrier or it has the wrong clearance code or the drive doesn't match the RFID ...alarms, guns, trouble.

Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

#37

Post by epo »

nl wrote: post #13

It's worth noting that this (reduction in the efficiency of internal communications) is exactly what Assange wanted: The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulti…

Or post-hoc rationalization. "Oh yes, that is what I intended all along"

Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

#38

Post by mahmud »

iwr wrote: post #31

The military could issue USB storage devices and identity tokens that keep their information internally encrypted and which only work on sirpnet-trusted computers. Scenario: Anything copied to the USB device is internally encrypted, offline, with one of the military's public keys. This process requires no network-side authentication, but would require the soldier's "identity key" to also be plugged in and "sign" the…

Pitch it to them and assemble a team.

Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

#40

Post by sciolistse »

epo wrote: post #37
nl wrote: post #13

It's worth noting that this (reduction in the efficiency of internal communications) is exactly what Assange wanted: The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulti…

Or post-hoc rationalization. "Oh yes, that is what I intended all along"

The quoted article (http://web.archive.org/web/20070129125831/iq.org/conspiracie...) was written the same month as the launch of Wikileaks, that seems a fully appropriate time to have made his mission clear.
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