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Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

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Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

#41

This 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.…

This doesn't make sense to me. There are two main stages to having your data analysed by such an organisation.

In the first stage everybody's data is run through, let's call it, pattern matching, to narrow down a very specific number of cases that have the highest likelihood of doing, having done or planning "something".

In the second stage, you might apply more resources to gather more data from your suspects, for example, by planting bugs.

But if you avoid triggering suspicion in the first stage, you don't have to worry about their capabilities, you're just not on their radar.

You might then argue that anyone encrypting their chats would then raise suspicion. Ultimately, such organisations have a finite limit of human resources to apply, certainly not enough to deal with any wide-spread usage.

If this were to happen, think from those organisations point of view. They need to stop it and can't scale to deal with every single case. You'll then find that encrypting your chat becomes against Google's T&C, because someone lent on them. And round it all goes.

Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

#42

This 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.…

Well can they do that in Richard Stallman's laptop ? If so we are doomed :)

[deleted]

Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

#43

This 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.…

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."

Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

#44

This 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.…

How would you implement a decent backdoor in your hardware? Would it be supported by software? How do you force the TCP/IP stack of someone's FOSS operating system to send unwanted data? IMHO he was referring to some backdoor in software. How about a nice ubiquitous piece of software? Windows? JVM?

While it's a bit tinfoil hat, it's not impossible that there could be hardware backdoors in processors or other hardware triggered by a very specific sequences of packets.

Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

#45

Earlier 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."

"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.

Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

#47

Earlier 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.

This is not my area, so excuse the ignorance, but this statement: A: "The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards." Spec…

Intercept could also mean man-in-the-middle.

Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

#48

Earlier 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.

Glenn Greenwald said on Twitter that he was given the technical details and isn't releasing them.

Glenn Greenwald is a partisan hack, his opinion is worth basically nothing.

Re: Encrypt your Google chats and make the NSA sad

#49

This 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.…

This doesn't make sense to me. There are two main stages to having your data analysed by such an organisation. In the first stage everybody's data is run through, let's call it, pattern matching, to narrow down a very specific number of cases that have the highest likelihood of doing, having done or planning "something". In the second stage, you might apply more resources to gather more data from your suspects, for e…

What about the stage where they just process the hell out of all the data they have about you and keep a profile?
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