April 2015 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Briar
by rysiek 13 Apr '15

13 Apr '15

Hi all, anybody has any info on Briar? https://briarproject.org/ Just came across it. -- Pozdrawiam, Michał "rysiek" Woźniak Zmieniam klucz GPG :: http://rys.io/pl/147 GPG Key Transition :: http://rys.io/en/147

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Gag law in Spain
by Th3 Und3rt4k3r 12 Apr '15

12 Apr '15

After approval of new gag law, protesters made an holographic demostration in front of Spain's Parliament, physical protests are now forbidden. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/holographic-images-representin…

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Re: Covert wireless (was: A crowdfunding campaign to build a free baseband)
by wirelesswarrior＠Safe-mail.net 12 Apr '15

12 Apr '15

-------- Original Message -------- From: coderman <coderman(a)gmail.com> To: wirelesswarrior(a)safe-mail.net Cc: falcon(a)ivan.harhan.org, cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org Subject: Re: Covert wireless (was: A crowdfunding campaign to build a free baseband) Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 16:11:15 -0700 > On 4/10/15, wirelesswarrior(a)safe-mail.net <wirelesswarrior(a)safe-mail.net> wrote: > > ... I delivered a paper last October regarding the reasons such alternatives are > > needed, reviewed recent developments and offered some practical directions > > for future work (some of which I am pursuing): > > > > http://www.paralelnipolis.cz/pp-congress-2014/WWPP.pdf > > > i didn't see mention of MIMO / beam forming systems for both better > throughput and greater privacy. I did not look closely at MIMO due to the lack of inexpensive SDR solutions and their lack of utility at lower bands. > > and as common as HackRF is, there are better kits. why was this unit > in particular chosen? Mainly price and frequency coverage. Since my interest is mainly on apps that require transmitting I did not focus on receviers. Starting at twice the HackRF's cost the USRPs are a best buy at the low end. The HackRF's weakness main weakness is its 8-bit ADC and lack of pre-selector to limit strong out-of-band input signals and reduce out-of-band transmiter spurs. However, it has an internal header to which daughter boards can be added and its CPDL can be reprogrammed for these add-ons and other changes. On the receive side a cheap coax bandstop filter, with acceptable insertion loss, can easily be fabricated to knock down the FM broadcast and pager transmitter signals instead of a pre-selector. What other kits were you thinking of? WW > > hard problems ahead!

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Crypto Projects that Might not Suck
by Seth 12 Apr '15

12 Apr '15

Hat tip to Steve Weis twitter account @sweis https://github.com/sweis/crypto-might-not-suck/blob/master/README.md End User Tool Summary This is a quick summary of tools that are generally recommended for end users. See the Encryption Works guide for more information. GPG: Email encryption TextSecure: Encrypted SMS Messaging RedPhone: Encrypted voice calls OTR: Encrypted instant messaging Tor: Protect from network surveillance

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Joe SixPack - How to respond to Idiocracy? - was Fwd: WARNING: Mobile Phone Virus.
by Zenaan Harkness 11 Apr '15

11 Apr '15

So I got the email below in my inbox. From a well meaning person but to me personally it's just spam - the well-paved road to hell of course. So then I thinks "what might be useful to the other recipients of this well-meaning email sender?" And I almost hit reply-all to whip up something which might actually be useful to folks. But "install CyanogenMod" is probably, may be, just slightly tiny bit too technical for most people. They'd have to figure out how to sync/ backup their contacts, text messages, etc etc, let alone any sort of "anti "dance of the pope" software :) Sorry about my ignorance, perhaps cyanogen does all that via google, I've no idea really - anyway, it's a real issue if I go running about making recommendations to people. So my conclusion is "right now, we have no ready answers for Joe SixPack". Am I wrong? TIA, Zenaan ----- Original Message ----- From: Don Whitaker Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 7:46 PM Subject: Fwd: On Thursday, April 9, 2015 7:21 AM, David & Rosemarie wrote: M:URGENT: Tell all contacts from your list not to accept a video called the dance of the Pope. It is a virus that formats your mobile. Beware it is very dangerous. They announced it today on the radio. Pass on to as many as you can. It was announced on the radio in USA.

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Covert wireless (was: A crowdfunding campaign to build a free baseband)
by wirelesswarrior＠Safe-mail.net 11 Apr '15

11 Apr '15

"The device in your purse or jeans that you think is a cellphone — guess again. It is a tracking device that happens to make calls. Let’s stop calling them phones. They are trackers." https://www.propublica.org/article/thats-no-phone.-thats-my-tracker SF, Most mobile phone users (like most citizens) are more than willing to sacrifice their privacy for convenience, socializing and entertainment. Educating them and changing their behaviours will, in the long run, probably bring the most benefits. Cypherpunks have been rather poor at this. A sucessful multiplayer game, requiring the use of criminal/spy/intel tradecraft and security tools, would be a great first step. Once these players integrate these tools and skills into their daily lives and pressure friends and family to do likewise it could prove insideous to law enforcement and intel agency privacy violations and turn the tide. Having a fully open mobile phone is good first step which can improve privacy when used with existing mobile networks but its only a first step. Alternative networks (e.g., WiFi mesh and open femtocell networks) are an obvious direction for improvement but their build out is problematic. Another way is to enable alternative communications that either need no infrastructure (think amateur radio) or covertly utilize existing commercial services (I mentioned pagers in my last post). The mobile phones would offer excellent user interfaces and processing the element of an affordable and flexible software radio transceiver. I delivered a paper last October regarding the reasons such alternatives are needed, reviewed recent developments and offered some practical directions for future work (some of which I am pursuing): http://www.paralelnipolis.cz/pp-congress-2014/WWPP.pdf Feedback from you and readers of this list is kindly sought. WW -------- Original Message -------- From: falcon(a)ivan.Harhan.ORG (Spacefalcon the Outlaw) To: wirelesswarrior(a)Safe-mail.net Cc: cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org, Blibbet <blibbet(a)gmail.com> Subject: re: A crowdfunding campaign to build a free baseband Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2015 06:56:09 GMT > Hi WW, > > > Although creating an open GSM mobile modem is an interesting technical > > exercise [...] > > I take offense at the way you trivialize it. It is not just "an > interesting technical exercise", but a way to dramatically improve the > quality of life for cellphone users. > > Yes, I realize that it is possible to live without cellphones. I lived > without them for the first 20-odd years of my life, so I know it's > possible. But like many others, I am now addicted to the ability to > call my significant other or receive calls from her no matter where I > am. > > Yes, it's an addiction, and arguably an unhealthy one, just like drugs. > In that light my project may be seen as a harm reduction measure. If, > for example, a person is addicted to injectable heroin and won't quit > no matter what, it would be better to have that person receive his/her > heroin injections in a safe medical setting than to buy junk on the > street and inject it with dirty needles. It's called harm reduction. > > By the same logic, if a person is addicted to the always-on reachability > provided by traditional cellular networks and won't give it up no > matter what, it would be much better if s/he can connect to these > cellular networks using free software (in the FSF definition) than the > utterly proprietary kind that all commercial handsets ship with. > > In my own case, I am a cellphone addict, and my quality of life is > currently very negatively impacted by the proprietary software running > on my cellular phone handset. The rest of life is completely free > from proprietary software: no Windows, no MacOS, I run Slackware on my > x86 devices and I also greatly enjoy my 1980s VAX minicomputers running > my own version of BSD UNIX. My home Internet connection is served by > a modem which I designed and built myself - Open Source Hardware, of > course. But the moment I would like to pick up the phone to call my > dear significant other and tell her how much I love her, I have to use > a device that runs proprietary firmware. This situation causes me an > enormous amount of distress. > > I seek to improve my quality of life by freeing it (my life) from > proprietary software. The cellphone in my purse (I'm M2F transgender) > is the last frontier. The handset hardware (it's a Pirelli DP-L10) is > absolutely perfect for my needs, but the proprietary firmware ruins it. > I need to replace this proprietary firmware with one which I compile > from source myself and which I can improve as my needs evolve. > > I hope that I am not the only cellphone addict whose quality of life > can be improved by replacing proprietary firmware in the handset with > free software. When it comes to freeing my own life from proprietary > software, I can do it on my own without any crowdfunding. I already > have an Openmoko phone and about 15 Pirellis, so I have everything I > need. But I very much hope that the number of people who can benefit > from my work is greater than 15, and if it is, then my available stash > of Pirellis won't be enough. > > If there are more than 15 people in the world whose quality of life > can be improved by replacing their handset proprietary fw with free > sw, then we need to build our own hardware to solve the problem of the > pre-existing old models being in too short supply. This hardware work > is what costs money, hence the crowdfunding campaign. > > Thus regardless of whether my crowdfunding campaign succeeds or not, I > *will* have a phone in my purse running 100% free firmware. But if > anyone else would also like to have such a phone, we need the > crowdfunding campaign to succeed so we can build more phones than the > 15 or so Pirellis in my stash. The matter is now in your hands, where > "you" refers to the community at large. > > > PS: Suggest you enable lower contribution steps for crowd funding. They are > > too high for many who might like to help but cannot afford or justify the > > current steps. > > There are no "steps"; one can donate as little as $1. Those who donate > $100 or more can opt to receive a "perk" (Indiegogo term) as a reward > for his/her donation. > > I am not able to offer perks for donations below $100 as the cost of > fulfilling those perks would eat up the money and there would be little > if anything left for the actual project, defeating the purpose. > > SF

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Kickstarter - Konekt Dash: Cellular Dev Kit + Free Global Data Plan
by wirelesswarrior＠Safe-mail.net 11 Apr '15

11 Apr '15

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/konekt/konekt-dash-cellular-dev-kit-fr… The Konekt Dash is a cellular development kit for building Internet of Things (IoT) devices. You can use it to build all sorts of fun connected products like sensors, tracking devices, alarm systems, connected car applications, and more (see examples below). The Konekt Platform is made to bring enterprise grade features to the individual developer, so its perfect for a solo hobby project or building the connected hardware business of your dreams! Each Konekt Dash comes preloaded with a Konekt Global SIM and 6 months of our basic data plan (1MB/month or 6MB total). If you need more data, thats cool too; we have great carrier agreements already in place to provide super affordable connectivity at higher data levels (check the deets below for pricing). The Konekt Dash will work anywhere you get a cellular signal and can easily and securely communicate to the internet or other devices via the Konekt Cloud. Get started right away by choosing the SIM-only reward tier or one of our Cellular Ardunio, Pi, or Beaglebone Kits. These rewards ship in May following the completion of the campaign.

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Stingrays & Hailstorms
by Henry Rivera 11 Apr '15

11 Apr '15

Police and state prosecutors publicly acknowledge (albeit implicitly in some cases) that they fail to disclose their frequent use of spoofed mobile phone towers in criminal cases, which is very much in violation of constitutional law on searches and law addressing disclosure in criminal proceedings. They assert they can do so because the Feds told them to. What other illegal surveillance are they routinely conducting and using in the service of prosecutions that they fail to disclose? http://phys.org/news/2015-04-baltimore-police-surveil-cellphones-secrecy.ht…

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12 communities experimenting with mesh networks
by wirelesswarrior＠Safe-mail.net 11 Apr '15

11 Apr '15

Whether to get around traditional ISPs or to bulk up resiliency in the event of a disaster, these mesh networks are worth knowing about. http://technical.ly/2015/04/06/12-communities-experimenting-mesh-networks/

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Greenwald, Scahill step down from The Intercept
by Seth 10 Apr '15

10 Apr '15

It's about damn time ;) http://chronicle.su/2015/03/07/greenwald-scahill-step-down-from-the-interce… INTERNET — Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill announced they were leaving The Intercept, Saturday, citing conflicts of interest with Pierre Omidyar, founder and owner. In an exclusive interview with the Internet Chronicle, Scahill said, “Firstly, I’m sorry to the folks at Pando. I ran my mouth off on twitter, but then I did my research and it was obvious that The Intercept’s founder, Pierre, was off fomenting world wars in Ukraine on behalf of the US government. I can’t report on anything and take money like that.” Scahill heaved a sigh of relief and his eyes watered, “When I came to Glenn and told him why I had to step down, he laughed and told me, ‘Your bravery is inspiring,’ and then he said how guilty he was at backing Tor, a pseudo-activist internet cloaking device built and maintained by the US Navy.” Greenwald apologized to Yasha Levine of Pando, who reported on Tor’s funding, saying, “I know I called you a conspiracy theorist, but I was just shooting from the hip. I’m sorry for that. I had backed Tor for too long. I now know that you’re basically right. Tor is a military-backed project working towards the military’s ends and I was a useful idiot that drew in countless thousands by promoting it. And Pierre Omidyar, he was always pushing me to put Tor into my stories even when it didn’t fit. The guilt will haunt me to my death, but at least if I speak out now I can minimize the damage to others, even though it damages me personally. It isn’t easy to admit you’ve been accidentally doing propaganda work for the US military, but it sure is a relief to get away from The Intercept.” Greenwald’s eyes twinkled as he said, “Snowden’s dream can finally come true. We’re going to do it, finally. We’re going to publish the list of people who are in prison because of the NSA’s illegal parallel investigations, and they’re going to go free, god dammit!” Both Greenwald and Scahill remain upbeat and have already joined the staff at Internet Chronicle, where they will take a massive pay cut and forego all bylines for a year in an act of voluntary penitence as they work on freeing the victims of illegal NSA wiretapping.

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