March 2016 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

FBI claims to modify its bilateral trolling re NSA data... in secret of course
by grarpamp 09 Mar '16

09 Mar '16

http://news.slashdot.org/story/16/03/08/2316212/fbi-quietly-changes-its-pri… https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11248320

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Help wanted: classification czar needed for oversight of national security secrecy system
by Michael Best 08 Mar '16

08 Mar '16

http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2016/03/help-wanted-isoo/ The government is looking for a person to oversee, and perhaps sometimes to overrule, classification decisions made throughout the Executive Branch. A job opening <https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/430180100> for the position of Director of the Information Security Oversight Office <http://www.archives.gov/isoo/> (ISOO) was announced in *USA Jobs* <https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/430180100> last week. The ISOO director is appointed by the Archivist of the United States, since ISOO is housed at the National Archives. But ISOO takes policy direction <http://www.archives.gov/isoo/> from the National Security Council, and the director’s authority over classification and declassification policy extends throughout the executive branch. The previous ISOO director <https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2016/01/isoo-fitzpatrick/>, John P. Fitzpatrick, left for the National Security Council in January. Read on at FAS: http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2016/03/help-wanted-isoo/ -- Veritas aequitas liberabit vos Veri universum vici That 1 Archive <http://that1archive.neocities.org/> @NatSecGeek <https://twitter.com/NatSecGeek>

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Fwd: [Cryptography] News flash: FBI in the "dark" about "numbers" radio stations
by grarpamp 08 Mar '16

08 Mar '16

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Henry Baker <hbaker1(a)pipeline.com> Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 14:34:50 -0800 Subject: [Cryptography] News flash: FBI in the "dark" about "numbers" radio stations To: cryptography(a)metzdowd.com FYI -- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/06/the-stupidly-simple-spy-me… The Stupidly Simple Spy Messages No Computer Could Decode Shane Harris 03.06.16 5:01 AM ET Every day, hour after hour, the world’s spies send top secret information you can easily listen in on. "But the numbers are just gibberish without that key, known in spycraft as a one-time pad. As its name suggests, it’s used only once. And that’s what makes it so secure." --- These radio communications to/from *terrorists* have been going on since WWII, and yet James Comey hasn't filed suit against the radio receiver manufacturers...

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Who we are up against
by Zenaan Harkness 07 Mar '16

07 Mar '16

For those who have not yet read of this, it's a must to comprehend. Lest ye doubt humans are rightly labelled 'sheep'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment Something uplifting to counterbalance: > http://thesaker.is/submarines-in-the-desert-as-my-deepest-gratitude-to-you/ (Thank you very much Alex.) And some comedy: http://thesaker.is/scotts-collection-of-russian-humor-hilarious-must-read/ Regards, Zenaan

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participation in sensor networks
by dan＠geer.org 06 Mar '16

06 Mar '16

Most everyone I know is participating in sensor networks beginning with carrying smartphones. Let us assume, for the moment, this is with their eyes wide open as to the possible extent of such networks' implications. Here's another one, http://www.nauto.com, which I mention as the recording of license plates and everything else in the surround, not just the driver's performance envelope, now comes to consumer gear which, undoubtedly, insurance rates will soon reflect and, in the fullness of time, subpoenas will seek. There are a bejillion other technologies of like import coming and coming soon. Those (of us) who opt-out will face price discrimination and, quite likely, participation discrimination on an accelerating pace; look to Sweden's stance on cash money for an example (banks no longer accept cash deposits, as I understand it). The question here is perhaps obvious: Will you opt out and suffer the consequences thereof? --dan

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Re: [Cryptography] EFF amicus brief in support of Apple
by grarpamp 06 Mar '16

06 Mar '16

On 3/6/16, Perry E. Metzger <perry(a)piermont.com> wrote: > I'm a practical person. I want systems that work, not that provide > some sort of philosophical warm fuzzies. > Economies of scale are real things. It is nice for a hundred million > people to be able to download patches to their systems automatically > without even having to think about it or understand what a patch is > It is nice for people to be able to download a > game or a to-do application without having to personally audit Open and secure does not preclude any of these things. > Where's the evidence for your assertion? What is your potential when you're chained to a wall? With open, possibility is a right of others, with closed, you forclose it upon them, and likely to serve yourself. That may be part of the potential. > If you look at Android vs. > iOS, iOS, with its much more restrictive environment, seems (as a > practical matter) to be more secure. iOS/Android haven't even hit 10 years old and neither they nor their underlying platforms truly have openness in their core ethos so they can't really be contrasted against each other in the suggested way. > What you're suggesting is impossible. There is no way any of us The general reply is that the overall model of open and all these related things simply hasn't had enough time to develop, execute, and be evaluated in a world that has only known closed. However one thing is of absolute certainty: believing that getting off the rock is impossible... will never get you off the rock.

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Re: [Cryptography] EFF amicus brief in support of Apple
by grarpamp 06 Mar '16

06 Mar '16

On 3/6/16, Ray Dillinger <bear(a)sonic.net> wrote: > It is possible that a profit center can be identified outside The profit center, and moreover even change for good in other areas, is the Boards and Officers of Apple, Google, Microsoft and so on... standing up and offering additional value... "Hey world, we are now going fully open hardware and software and integrating security and right to privacy models into all our products. Join us." These are the biggest corporations on Earth, and it's time for the grand experiment of open, secure, and private to begin. It's not insane, it's new.

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Re: [Cryptography] EFF amicus brief in support of Apple
by grarpamp 06 Mar '16

06 Mar '16

> It's time we stopped believing that there's something magic about open > source software. > There's no way the average person can build their own software from > source [...] forcing your 80 year old grandfather who used to be a chef to audit a > few million lines of source code, compile them, and load them onto > his phone before he can make a phone call isn't going to help No. See, those are the real problems... mindset. You all who say this type of talk are disbelieving apologists still trying to advance control, profit, babysitting, trust us we know better, etc... over others. No one is asserting that opensource is currently better or magic. However, when a billion humans around the world *may* look at and even participate in the hw and sw if they wanted to, versus only 25 people locked in the coderoom of a megacorp whose primary raison d etre is by definition making money... the possible odds that it *could* be better and even a solution to everything as you say... are in fact better. Because it's open, not closed. And even if that doesn't happen, then with opensource there are *still* just 25 talented people involved in and hacking on it... openly, not closed. Nor do I see you offering to personally help those grandfathers around you get their phone / cpu up and running when they understand *why* they want to use the open hw and sw, but come asking some human they know who can help the details. Or setting up some local collectives that do so openly for fun.

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Bitcoin: A Miner Problem
by grarpamp 06 Mar '16

06 Mar '16

http://qntra.net/2016/03/a-miner-problem/ That the notion of "a majority of Bitcoin nodes" is void of content, That a cartel of Bitcoin miners is deliberately and systematically withholding blocks for an interval of about 20 minutes to a half hour, so as to ensure themselves a (significant) advantage over any would-be competitors. That neither above item makes sense or could long survive without the other

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The rewards of frenzied comsec-shopping should be a pardon for Snowden
by John Young 06 Mar '16

06 Mar '16

NY Times surmises NSA does not want to reveal its crypto cracking capabilities, that the FBI hopes unskilled users will make exploitable mistakes implementing, that DoD hopes to exploit holes, doubt and errors rather than see them corrected, that hackers and corporations expect to continue to sell 0-days for high prices, that Obama staff has mixed views of weak and strong comsec, that the US hacks both friends and foes, engages in cyber defense and offense, all this feeding opportunistic and obliging media fanning flames with anonymous sources, secret briefings, revolving door job offers of op-eds, essays, speeches, testimonies and spy-approved tattle-tales. Essential to crypto fire-storm is fueling a fire-sale Snowden 0-day attribution. The rewards of this frenzied comsec-shopping should be a pardon for Snowden, along with a life-time free travel in search of anywhere crypto is not needed, just his word comms are good to go naked.

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