• Tag Archives encryption

  • Ron Paul Delivers a Reality Check to Americans on Government Snooping

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in a feud with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Some advocate Apple’s stance; others oppose it. Former Congressman and Libertarian Ron Paul is very clear on which side he stands.

    In a heated interview with Trish Regan of Fox News, Ron Paul made a very vocal argument in Apple’s support. Upon being asked if he was on the side of the tech companies, the former congressman said, “I think the tech companies right now are on the side of liberty. They’re on the side of the people who would like to have their encryption protected.” (Source: “Ron Paul Says Apple ‘on Side of Liberty’ in Phone Feud With FBI,” Fox News, February 18, 2016.)

    In response to Regan’s repeated grilling, Ron Paul said, “More people should look at this like a second amendment. You know the second amendment is there to protect us against tyranny and against our government.”

    As Paul reiterated, “The government doesn’t have the right to snoop on us constantly.”

    Upon getting badgered for supporting Apple’s stand against the government, Ron Paul explained, “This is telling Apple they have to produce a program that deactivates something that they have built into the system for millions and millions of people that the people want and paid for. So this is different than a simple subpoena and a simple a search warrant.”

    “They want the lock and the key to do this eternally on everybody.” Ron Paul reminded viewers, “The encryption is there to protect the people against illegal snooping and to honor the constitution.”

    Bear in mind that Apple is resisting the FBI’s demands to hack into the San Bernandino shooter Syed Farook’s “iPhone.” According to Apple, the FBI is demanding a “key” to the iPhone’s encryption code that will open a backdoor channel. As a consequence, Apple users will face the risk of privacy invasion in the future.

    The heated interview concluded with Trish Regan accusing Ron Paul of supporting the terrorists, to which Paul responded, “This is all done to design and control and magnify the size of the federal government and undo the Constitution. They’re doing a very good job. And it’s all done out of fear and innuendo.”

    : Ron Paul Delivers a Reality Check to Americans on Government Snooping


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  • Cops hate encryption but the NSA loves it when you use PGP

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Although the cops and Feds wont stop banging on and on about encryption – the spies have a different take on the use of crypto.

    To be brutally blunt, they love it. Why? Because using detectable encryption technology like PGP, Tor, VPNs and so on, lights you up on the intelligence agencies’ dashboards. Agents and analysts don’t even have to see the contents of the communications – the metadata is enough for g-men to start making your life difficult.

    “To be honest, the spooks love PGP,” Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute, told the Usenix Enigma conference in San Francisco on Wednesdy. “It’s really chatty and it gives them a lot of metadata and communication records. PGP is the NSA’s friend.”

    Weaver, who has spent much of the last decade investigating NSA techniques, said that all PGP traffic, including who sent it and to whom, is automatically stored and backed up onto tape. This can then be searched as needed when matched with other surveillance data.

    Given that the NSA has taps on almost all of the internet’s major trunk routes, the PGP records can be incredibly useful. It’s a simple matter to build a script that can identify one PGP user and then track all their contacts to build a journal of their activities.

    Even better is the Mujahedeen Secrets encryption system, which was released by the Global Islamic Media Front to allow Al Qaeda supporters to communicate in private. Weaver said that not only was it even harder to use than PGP, but it was a boon for metadata – since almost anyone using it identified themselves as a potential terrorist.

    “It’s brilliant!” enthused Weaver. “Whoever it was at the NSA or GCHQ who invented it give them a big Christmas bonus.”

    Given all the tools available to the intelligence agencies there’s really no need for an encryption backdoor, he explained. With the NSA’s toolkit of zero-day exploits, and old-day exploits, it’s much easier to root a target’s computer after identifying them from metadata traffic.

    Source: Cops hate encryption but the NSA loves it when you use PGP


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  • President Obama Hints At Asking Silicon Valley To Magically Block Terrorists From Using Tech Products

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    As you probably know, last night President Obama gave a big address from the Oval Office about what he plans to do about ISIS, along with dealing with the threat of lone wolf and other attacks at home. Buried deep within (in fact, I missed it the first time through) was a nod towards the idea of pushing Silicon Valley to magically undermine encryption. Here’s the entirety of what he said on the subject:

    I will urge high tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder to use technology to escape from justice.

    That seems like a simple sentence, but it’s loaded with meaning, and most of it’s not good. As we’ve noted over and over again, the last refuge of those looking to undermine encryption is to bring up the idea of “if only Silicon Valley techies and law enforcement could get together, surely they could come up with some magic golden key. But that’s clueless, because what they’re asking for is impossible. This isn’t something that’s “difficult” — it’s impossible. You can’t make a backdoored encryption system that doesn’t make everyone vulnerable and less safe.

    And, yes, while you can say he doesn’t specifically say “encryption” here, the use of the phrase “technology to escape from justice” clearly implies encryption. Of course, as we’ve noted time and time again, the hand-wringing over encryption is totally overblown. Every time we look at terrorist attacks, they seem to do plenty of planning out in the open. And, even when encryption is used, law enforcement and the intelligence community have admitted that either the people often mess up, making them trackable, or they leave other trails.

    Source: President Obama Hints At Asking Silicon Valley To Magically Block Terrorists From Using Tech Products | Techdirt


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