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Anti-Sybil (re: Explain... all the Nodes)
by grarpamp 03 May '19

03 May '19

On 5/2/19, Herbert Karl Mathé <mail(a)hkmathe.de> wrote: > I strongly believe certain issues need be brought up into conscious, and > into presence: into discussion, actually. > > Therefore appreciating this as it might fit too well into context > > Keeping things below surface, or trying so, has too often proven to be a > very bad idea as these will come up sooner or later anyway, then with much > higher magnitude. Even worse, trust is then destroyed. As said before, the category of Anti Sybil Web of Trust Projects needs considered, and could even cover such speculative subjects. It's not about analysing the meta of one node or one operator, even if a true positive hit, in general the yield is approximately zero percent of any overlay network's nodes, it's about stepping back and agnostically analysing them all. Go investigate and collate all the possible meta informations... Node location, payment, OS, ISP, uptimes, anon / nym / PGP / GovID, workplace, politic, blogs, whatever else you can imagine, including incorporating what's already in the consensus, contact, MyFamily, nickname, both real world and virtual infos, operator to operator p2p Web of Trust... No node has to supply any infos. Put it all in a db and give users tools to select node sets. Some users might select State's, or State's workers or even Statist's nodes, over say anon nodes, as maybe they feel they have to play by some "rules" that anon nodes don't. Others might reject operators that post stupid pics on Facebook. Or all Ubuntu relays. Or nodes that engage in free speech they don't like, some in Tor Project would love that selector, lol. It doesn't matter, it's a meta project, with it you can accept or reject on whatever whim you wish by node fingerprints in your client. And if the Sybil WoT project ends up discovering some interesting potential threats classes among the entire node set, you win. Until then, you are potentially missing all of that, and are not raising Sybil's costs of doing business by forcing them to expend much resource into playing real world Web of Trust against users who might select to use various positive-meta-ranking and or WoT structures. Right now Sybil's cost is only a little hosting. If not, you can still report bad exits and other actual technical node and traffic mangling to tor-relays and or bad-relays, at least until someone DHT's or otherwise distributes tor away from the more centralized DA design. Note that Tor's architecture does not protect much against Global Passive Adversary of NSA style fiber Vampires, that threat does not require Sybil nodes, nor do they have to be Global or Govt, even Tier-N backbones can tap, analyse, and do nefarious things like and with that, including sell, give, and partner it all away. Though they can and do run Sybil nodes to help inject, manipulate, block, see, etc traffic, nodes, and clients. On flip perspective, maybe you really don't want to develop WoT's and such, simply because enabling creeping featureism of it all can lead to exclusivity and control whereby valuable anon diversity is selected away from and purged. That would be very bad. Either way, other than the usual design, protocol, code, and "Lawfare" exploit space, and the coming Quantum Compute adversary, Sybil and Vampire are likely todays biggest remaining threats to overlay networks. None of todays networks seem to be trying to do anything to stop Sybil, and only a few networks put Vampire as any sort of priority [1]. While Vampire may perhaps be solved with some technical measures, Sybil may require some sort sort of human based measures. [1] Curiously, cryptocurrencies do employ Anti-Sybil in various proofs of work (adversary cost raising), and can help defund Vampires.

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From Fox News - Spanish journalist arrested for trying to sell Assange embassy videos for $3.4M: report
by jim bell 03 May '19

03 May '19

Spanish journalist arrested for trying to sell Assange embassy videos for $3.4M: report https://www.foxnews.com/world/julian-assange-spain-journalist-embassy-videos

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BBC News: German arrests as police attack dark web drugs market
by jim bell 03 May '19

03 May '19

German arrests as police attack dark web drugs market - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48147185

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NBC News: European, American authorities bust 'world's largest darknet marketplace for contraband'
by jim bell 03 May '19

03 May '19

NBC News: European, American authorities bust 'world's largest darknet marketplace for contraband'. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/european-american-authorities-bust-wo…

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Happy World Password Day!!! :D
by Cecilia Tanaka 03 May '19

03 May '19

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/world-password-day-first-thursday-in-may/ Celebrate the World Password Day changing or upgrading your p455w0rd$, dear all. <3 Oh, you know, "123456", "password", and "admin" are so old fashioned passwords... ;) Kisses, hugs and ********** , hahaha!!! <3 Ceci ---------- Loving. Caring. Sharing. Being Excellent To Each Other And To Our Hackerspace. <3 ---------- "Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live." - Mae Jemison

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Spying: NSA TLA LEA - General Warrantless Content Abuse Stats Up 28%
by grarpamp 03 May '19

03 May '19

https://icontherecord.tumblr.com/post/184553467393/odni-releases-annual-int… https://www.dni.gov/files/CLPT/documents/2019_ASTR_for_CY2018.pdf https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/30/nsa-warrantless-searches-american-data-… An annual transparency report published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shows warrantless searches of Americans' data jumped 28 percent in 2018. According to the report, the National Security Agency (NSA) conducted 9,637 warrantless search queries of Americans' calls, texts, and emails in 2018. That's up from 7,512 searches in 2017, and it's more than double the 4,672 warrantless searches the NSA made in 2015. "query terms of content" vs "queries of metadata" https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/4-thin… https://www.aclunc.org/blog/att%E2%80%99s-first-transparency-report-reveals… https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/judge-dodges-legality-nsa-mass-spying… https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/targeted-killing/keeping-civili… https://www.aclu.org/cases/aclu-v-doj-foia-case-records-relating-targeted-k…

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Censorship: Facebook Bans Dozen More People, World Press Freedom Day Isn't
by grarpamp 03 May '19

03 May '19

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-02/facebook-bans-alex-jones… https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47974579 Facebook has imposed a ban on a new dozen far-right individuals and groups... British National Party Nick Griffin English Defence League Paul Ray National Front Tony Martin Britain First Paul Golding Jayda Fransen Knights Templar Jim Dowson Jack Renshaw Alex Jones Milo Yiannopoulos Laura Loomer Louis Farrakhan Paul Nehlen Paul Joseph Watson. John Earnest Tommy Robinson Plus everyone censored off in prior sweeps. Many millions of combined followers and contributors. All the top social sites trending censors. Includes Instagram and all other properties, and all syndication, and even so much as praise, support for, "representation" and convo about all censored persons and entities are now triggering shadow bans, demonetization, account deletion, etc on various platforms. Even "separatism" right of independance. https://www.tr.news/censorship-why-so-many-are-flocking-to-telegram/ https://www.tr.news/nzer-pleads-guilty-to-sharing-christchurch-video/ Arps will be sentenced on June 14 and faces a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison for the crime of sharing the footage. New Zealanders can also face up to 10 years prison for “knowingly” possessing a copy of the Christchurch shooting livestream or the shooter’s manifesto which he left in the wake of his attack. Corporations, including web hosts, face an additional $200,000 AUD fine under the same law for allowing users to have and distribute the video. Footage of the attack, including the shooter’s manifesto are illegal to view, possess and distribute in New Zealand. Last month, Australian and New Zealand telecommunication companies were quick to block websites that they thought would distribute the content, such as ZeroHedge, 8chan and 4chan. Another New Zealand man, 18, faces up to 28 years in prison for sharing the livestream. MP's said the measures were a "necessary first step" and should be strengthened by independent regulation and financial penalties for firms that were sluggish to remove material. Meanwhile, the Islamic terrorist organisation of Hamas is still permitted to use Facebook and Instagram. World Press Freedom Day: Jailed for a painting Today marks World Press Freedom Day. Around the world, hundreds of journalists are imprisoned for doing their jobs, and the highest number is in Turkey - according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Zehra Doğan, a Kurdish journalist and artist, was sentenced to nearly three years in a Turkish jail for painting a picture. Her story gained worldwide attention in 2018 after Banksy drew a mural calling for her release. In jail, Doğan secretly published a newspaper and created materials to paint. Now released, she is determined to continue sharing stories.

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ACLU: Border Agents Violate Constitution When They Search Electronic Devices
by jim bell 03 May '19

03 May '19

It seems to me that one possible solution is to back up your phone onto an micro-SD card (possibly one other than the one you usually have installed), using an app to do this, and wiping most of the phone except for some functions.. (I'm assuming this is already available, or could be written if this is big issue for many people.) Micro-SD cards of 128 Gigabytes capacity are now about $20, and they are so small that they could easily fit behind most postage stamps, on envelopes. Those about as old as me (61), or older, probably remember when "micro-dots" were a big plot element in spy novels, probably the 1950s and 1960s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdot Then, it was considered remarkable that a page of text could be photo-reduced in this way, possibly being stuck behind a postage stamp. A 128 gigabyte micro-SD card can hold the equivalent of about 16,000 Encyclopedia-Britannica-sized volumes. (Which, of course, dates me too: Many kids today have probably never seen a paper encyclopedia...) A week ago, I got to the end of watching the TV series, "The Americans" about a Russian couple who act as spies in Washington D.C. for 25+ years. Inspired by a 2010 case from Seattle, I believe. My main objection to the plot of the series is that they repeatedly had to kill people merely to ensure their continued anonymity. My understanding is that there are drugs which can erase a person's day's waking memory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(drug-related_amnesia)This would allow them to interrogate someone else, and then deliberately cause him to forget the recent incident. No need to kill anyone. Jim Bell https://www.npr.org/2019/05/02/719337356/aclu-border-agents-violate-constit… [partial quote follows] The American Civil Liberties Union says it has uncovered new evidence that federal border agents are violating the Constitution when they search travelers' electronic devices. The ACLU, along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sued the federal government in 2017, alleging that its "warrantless and suspicionless searches" of electronic devices at the U.S. ports of entry violated the First and Fourth amendments. Lawyers now say that, through depositions of border agents, they have learned that the scope of the warrantless searches has expanded far beyond the mere enforcement of immigration and customs laws. Border officers have the authority to search belongings for contraband, or to determine who is admissible into the U.S., the ACLU said. But agents now "claim authority to search travelers' devices for general law enforcement purposes, such as looking for potential evidence of illegal activity beyond violations of immigration and customs laws," plaintiffs wrote. "That claimed authority extends to enforcing 'hundreds' of federal laws, including tax, bankruptcy, environmental, and consumer protection laws. Defendants' asserted purposes for conducting warrantless or suspicionless device searches also include intelligence gathering or advancing pre-existing investigations." These practices violate the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure, the ACLU wrote. They also violate the First Amendment, attorneys said, because people traveling to the U.S. might censor themselves, knowing that a border agent might look through their phone.[end of partial quote]

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Bloomberg: China's Mass Surveillance More Sophisticated Than Thought
by jim bell 03 May '19

03 May '19

Bloomberg: China's Mass Surveillance More Sophisticated Than Thought. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-01/alibaba-backed-face-scan…

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The solution to quantum computers cracking cryptography — Quartz
by jim bell 03 May '19

03 May '19

https://qz.com/1605685/the-solution-to-quantum-computers-cracking-cryptogra…

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