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Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

abc.net.au

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Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#31

Post by mpeg »

q-big wrote: post #25
true_religion wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a challenge out there to see who can correctly break all the layers, and, would you believe it, yesterday the coin was launched at 8:45am; we put up our web form and said, 'Hey, if you think you've got the answers, fill in the form'," she said. It’s just a game for them to popularize code breaking and do some youth recruiting.

> It’s just a game for them to popularize code breaking Do they really want to do that - considering these talented people might use their code breaking skills against the government? ;-)

These codes are really just little puzzles, modern cryptography has no weaknesses of the kind these codes have.

There are even sites that teach you about bad modern cryptography, like cryptohack [0] but in general the kind of skills you learn there won't be useful either unless you happen to find a piece of software that rolled their own crypto and did something really dumb (which does happen, occasionally, see the Sony PS3 hack where they used a not-so-random value for crypto, which made it broken)

[0]: https://cryptohack.org/

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#32

Post by nailer »

Yeahsureok wrote: post #29
nailer wrote: post #14

I live in the UK but have family in Australia - I can imagine there’s no privacy there either but I was wondering what the law is? In the UK it’s one month of all our private communications thanks to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. What is it in Australia?

2 years data retention

> The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 requires telecommunications companies to retain a particular set of telecommunications data for at least 2 years.

That looks like metadata (see https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/nat-security/files/dataset.pd..., PDF warning). Which is still private, but doesn't include your private calls and messages.

How long do they keep private calls and messages?

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#33

Post by hilbert42 »

claudiawerner wrote: post #3

It's funny to see a coin like this minted considering the Australian government's position on encryption and privacy (well, not just Australia - pretty much any other Commonwealth country too).

When you live here you soon realize the politicians and those who bask in the limelight aren't the ones in charge.

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#34

Post by nailer »

96llort wrote: post #17
nailer wrote: post #14

I live in the UK but have family in Australia - I can imagine there’s no privacy there either but I was wondering what the law is? In the UK it’s one month of all our private communications thanks to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. What is it in Australia?

Quoted post unavailable.

If you're comparing to the US: the US has the Fourth Amendment, and your government ignores that too.

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#35

Post by adventured »

nailer wrote: post #34
96llort wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

If you're comparing to the US: the US has the Fourth Amendment, and your government ignores that too.

You're pretending it doesn't exist at all, when in fact the Fourth Amendment provides enormous, common protection - which some government agents rarely violate (leading you to claim the "government" ignores it entirely, which is false).

The Fouth Amendment is not only still fully valid, it continues to hold up extraordinarily well when it comes to protecting you in a court of law.

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#37

Post by paulryanrogers »

hilbert42 wrote: post #33
claudiawerner wrote: post #3

It's funny to see a coin like this minted considering the Australian government's position on encryption and privacy (well, not just Australia - pretty much any other Commonwealth country too).

When you live here you soon realize the politicians and those who bask in the limelight aren't the ones in charge.

Who is?

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#38

Post by shakna »

nailer wrote: post #32
Yeahsureok wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 years data retention

> The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 requires telecommunications companies to retain a particular set of telecommunications data for at least 2 years. That looks like metadata (see https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/nat-security/files/dataset.pd... , PDF warning). Which is still private, but doesn't include your private calls and messages. How long do they keep private calls and messages?

> How long do they keep private calls and messages?

7-10 years, in practice. 2 years, in requirement. [0]

[0] https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Depart...

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#39

Post by bongobingo1 »

gumby wrote: post #18

> those who crack the codes could discover "some wonderful, uplifting messages". Let’s hope that one of them was, “Australia should be a republic”

Its probably "fuck off we're full" in an attempt to self select for government agencies.

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#40

Post by nirimda »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #37
hilbert42 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you live here you soon realize the politicians and those who bask in the limelight aren't the ones in charge.

Who is?

Usually such a comment is a reference to a certain American media mogul who has tried to swing several recent elections and found themselves largely preaching to the choir with a very much reduced audience. But their miss rate is now exceedingly high: 2022 federal miss. 2022 SA miss. 2020 Qld miss. 2019 federal hit. 2018 Vic miss.

In fact, the people in charge in Australia are basically the voters. It upsets some people that Australian voters behaved basically the same as voters in every other democratic country in the post-1970s inflation and post-cold war liberal periods.

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