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ISIS Has a Smartphone App

fortune.com

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Re: ISIS Has a Smartphone App

#71

Post by mahouse »

jevinskie wrote: post #66
christianmann wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and possibly the iOS side as well This is exactly what jailbreaking fixes. By default, iOS does not allow you to install apps that are not published in the App Store.

Well, unfortunately jailbreaking "fixes" the problem by ruining code signing integrity on the device. Ideally, the jailbreaks would leave code signing enforcement in effect but just augment the default trusted CAs/CDHashes. I'm disappointed that AOSP never gained the code signing framework that iOS has, allowing people to have better Freedom and Security simultaneously.

Well, you can't update an app with the same app signed with another certificate.

Re: ISIS Has a Smartphone App

#72

Post by mahouse »

nkrisc wrote: post #52
tlogan wrote: post #44

I thought they can chat in Arabic and western intelligence agencies will have no clue what is going on. There is very very little knowledge of Arabic language (with slang and such) in western intelligence agencies. As far as I now, there is less than 2,500 Americans are studying Arabic at colleges across the country right now. And 80% of them will be kicked out from country by "Trumps" as terrorists :-)

You can't possibly be serious.

My own suggestion is to switch to pig latin.

Re: ISIS Has a Smartphone App

#75

Post by EthanHeilman »

marcosdumay wrote: post #51
pen2l wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not true. E.g., do you think the average user of Tor takes this precaution? Thinking back to the times I have downloaded Tor, I never did that. It reminds me of a time when I wanted to get in touch with an HN user... they had their pgp key in their user page... I tried sending the email but it didn't work (formatting issues). Finally I reached this user and asked what was up with it... and he responded by sa…

Well, differently from you and your friend, ISIS does have somebody out to get them. It's very hard to think someone would get to the trouble of creating and using a secure chat application, but then fail to secure its distribution.

Interestingly secure distribution is a harder problem than encrypted messaging.

If both you and I have an shared app, then we have some shared data and protocols we can use to protect our communications and maintain security, but when you download an app you do not yet have any protection unless that protection is provided by an app store (and such app store protections disappear at the first court order).

Bootstrapping security over insecure channels against nation state threats is close to impossible, maintaining security you have already achieved over a brief window of time is still hard but achieve given existing technologies. I see no evidence ISIS is capable of doing either. As further evidence observe that the US just blew up their super secret cash reserve.

Re: ISIS Has a Smartphone App

#76

Post by jacquesm »

nkrisc wrote: post #52
tlogan wrote: post #44

I thought they can chat in Arabic and western intelligence agencies will have no clue what is going on. There is very very little knowledge of Arabic language (with slang and such) in western intelligence agencies. As far as I now, there is less than 2,500 Americans are studying Arabic at colleges across the country right now. And 80% of them will be kicked out from country by "Trumps" as terrorists :-)

You can't possibly be serious.

He's got a point:

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/091213-670830-cia-j...

Re: ISIS Has a Smartphone App

#77

Post by EthanHeilman »

golergka wrote: post #19
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #9

Alrawi can’t be downloaded from Google Play. Instead it must be installed from shady back alleys of the Internet. Well, there's your obvious solution. Get a copy of the APK, wrap it with some spyware, then propagate the bugged version. If ISIS won't host the source or can't provide an "official" outlet to grab it, you've got no way of knowing whether your version is legit or not. Who'd have thought the paradigms of s…

But that's government surveillance, and HN comments are supposed to say that it's always bad and much worse than ISIS, right?

Most objections to surveillance are not to all forms of government surveillance, instead people are objecting to extra-legal, and arguably illegal, mass surveillance. Those opposing mass surveillance tend to argue along some subset of following lines:

1. it is ineffective compared with other techniques,

2. it is government graft to favored contractors,

3. mass surveillance databases and collection points provide an excellent target for foreign intelligence agencies and others,

4. it is harmful to privacy and liberty,

5. it is rife for government abuse and blackmail,

6. it undermines the rule of law.

I have yet to see anyone argue against lawful and warranted targeted surveillance of known terrorists. I claim that none of the above objections hold in the targeted surveillance case.

Re: ISIS Has a Smartphone App

#78

Post by the8472 »

superuser2 wrote: post #57
the8472 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if it were bombs instead of surveillance you would bomb the target when you're uncertain about its enemy status? And since we're talking about mass surveillance... I guess carpet bombing?

... this is an obviously terrible argument. If you surveil someone secretly and then decide not to act on the intelligence, they aren't harmed in any way. They don't even know. The mistakenly assassinated are still dead.

so you're saying mass surveillance is victimless as long as nobody learns that they specifically have been spied upon?

Re: ISIS Has a Smartphone App

#79

Post by pen2l »

jevinskie wrote: post #64
marcosdumay wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, differently from you and your friend, ISIS does have somebody out to get them. It's very hard to think someone would get to the trouble of creating and using a secure chat application, but then fail to secure its distribution.

The submitted headline is just plain wrong. The article mentions no ISIS-produced messaging app, just a news app.

This article talks about an ISIS chat app: http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/16/isis-app/

Re: ISIS Has a Smartphone App

#80

Post by AKifer »

The policy makers are always wrong if they assume terrorists will be like normal people, agreeing to follow the laws, they will always find a way to circumvent the rules, that only the good people freedom that will suffer.
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