- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Due Process Explained
by Ryan Carboni 05 Jun '19

05 Jun '19

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_process Sent with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com) Secure Email.

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Re: Autonomous Next Generation Leaks [re: WL, N ways u change world, etc]
by John Young 05 Jun '19

05 Jun '19

"Open source" was, is, a magnificent ploy to get access to inventions and information that might have once been kept out of sight by the makers and a few associates. Open source crypto still robbing the guileless by the guilers. Internet, especially its web glorification, another. Wikipedia, Wayback, Google, SM, an almost endless stream of opportunities developed to lure with free services to grab consumer yearnings, opinions, fellows, followers, beliefs, fears, for feeding tailored operations (thx NSA) worldwide to ingest and digest. Consider in this smearing thread, Snowden's openly disclosed 6 top secret years as CIA employee with specific tools and informarion of operations completely unrevealed while piddling months of contractor service with NSA is generously touted as if high-value golden coin. In this roasting comedy, Snowden would be the one who runs the NSA snatch for CIA, NSA unable to admit that it was snookered by its number one competitor. CIA dancing in the aisles, toasting its win with one the oldest cons in history: the orchestrated aggrieved insider. Assange has commented on WikiLeaks being used as a con op, melding accurate material with the bullshit disinfo. As with advertisers and prosecutors, though, he implies this mix is unavoidable, consumers and juries do not want shades of truth, the whole truth and nothing but must be declared to make sales and collaterally murder. Comedian Camp is right to observe, the overtly guilty are not punished, they are rewarded with prizes and medals, to wit, sanitized Edward Snowden, the "Snowden era" grandly avowed. Camp's listing of Snowden's family jewels would be fun. Also open source evangelists. At 03:31 PM 6/4/2019, you wrote: >On 6/4/19, John Young <jya(a)pipeline.com> wrote:> > > Memorable: his tortured dick (thx Camp) Assange hoisted by fellating > > Assangists. > > > > WikiLeaks is a pretty good (thx Zimmermann) fictional joke name, not > > overlooking the list of 140 things really non-true about the cahootenanny. > > > > Movie Fail-Safe is pretty good at megadeath comedizing, still > > awaiting takedown of privacy, crypto, terror, sexual assault. > > > > Prosecutors rely on fictional non-fiction. > >Let's not forget that there are parties participating in >these global "law, journalism, etc" conversations that >are in direct publishing competition with WikiLeaks, in >conflict of interest, often holding anti-freedom pro-themselves >forcibly over others philosophies. >Some of them who have already by some combination >whether voluntarily, or by pressure, or by force... taken down >their own prior publications... whether they be true, or >opinion, or even as acceptable and right when proven >false... yet often when taken down, done so silently with >no published explanation as to why. >Some of them who have never published information >that was classified at the time of publishing as TOP SECRET, >nor SECRET, or even CLASSIFIED, rendering their conversation >perhaps at times an envious attack vs altruistic support, >or a side bid advert to be in receipt for their own glory. >Some who would never publish same, and some who would >take it down when asked, most well before expending their own >cryptocurrency coinbag on freedom of speech trial, or their >years on contempt or other imprisonment. > >No. > >Some of these issues make it apparent things are largely and rightly >in the hands of the "leakers" as the ones who ensure their message >of the truth at least gets heard, as unredacted, unfiltered, uninterpreted, >uncensored, unmetered, and untakedowned as they intend... whether >anonymously on the distributed networks, in the Library stacks, >wherever good... even their own voice on the call in hour of their >local 2600 hackerspace guerrilla radio show, followed by distribution >packets transmitted via SDR to all, amplified and repeated by >hammy hackery of others worldwide over tropospheric bounce. > >Gear up, test opsec, redundancy survival permanence distribution, >and send your message.

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Re: 18 ways Julian Assange changed the world (by Lee Camp) - [PEACE]
by John Young 05 Jun '19

05 Jun '19

Full-bore Camp is better than I assumed from the redacted ver. Memorable: his tortured dick (thx Camp) Assange hoisted by fellating Assangists. WikiLeaks is a pretty good (thx Zimmermann) fictional joke name, not overlooking the list of 140 things really non-true about the cahootenanny. Movie Fail-Safe is pretty good at megadeath comedizing, still awaiting takedown of privacy, crypto, terror, sexual assault. Prosecutors rely on fictional non-fiction. At 12:50 PM 6/4/2019, you wrote: >https://www.truthdig.com/articles/18-ways-julian-assange-changed-the-world/ >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqYkzhOIuQ > >Original posts.

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Is it possible to place Assange's face everywhere?
by Douglas Lucas 04 Jun '19

04 Jun '19

See attached screenshot, a portion of the @Unity4J header image. Is it possible to place Assange's face everywhere? Are there any remaining locations that as of yet are not covered with images of Assange's face? On public toilets, in the sky thanks to skywriting jets, on the backs of cereal boxes, attached inexplicably to @_cryptome_ tweets, deep in the ocean in trenches where strange lifeforms struggle to survive, atop and skidding around the ice of Europa next to a zamboni driven by a dude in an Assange mask, replace the Man in the Moon with Assange's face, tattoe his face on the outside-the-bell-curve penises of porn stars, in fact eliminate 100% of content of any and all leaks -- swap all text of, say, the HBGary leak, with <img> of Assange's face -- hunt down decaying NES cartridges and somehow reprogram them such that when you plug them into the Nintendo, on the non-CRT ancient television set a giant image of Assange's face appears, puzzling your child about his or her next move and his or her purpose in life. What criteria should guide actions? What should the goals be, and what steps should be taken to achieve those goals? Is there any metanarrative any more to bring meaning, to face challenges, to... nevermind, just put Assange's face everywhere. It is a little odd to me, the choice of Assange's face for the image that a planet of primates are dedicating the irreplaceable hours of their lives to spreading everywhere like dandelion. Are not their spouses a little upset? Do they not have laundry, other tasks to complete? Did they go out on Valentine's Day for ice cream or did they place Assange's face on additional various surfaces where, by some unusual chance, it did not already exist? I assume military psychology studies say the commoners are most compelled, most controlled, by images of faces, but why not, say, Assange's middle left toe? It would be a far more interesting experiment if @Unity4J covered their banner with images of Assange's middle left toe. And if Assange's middle left toe was placed everywhere, on public toilets, on cereal boxes, etc. Imagine the sheer confusion, followed by outrage, of #Unity4J if the chin, the nose, the hair, the eyelids, of Assange were suddenly replaced with images of his gunk-encrusted, never-cut middle left toenail (it is false and defamatory to say Saint Julian does not use toenail clippers properly) ... #Unity4J would not know what to do, they would appeal to the blue check marks for guidance, but all there would be in answer, would be this metastazing, duplicating, reduplicating, exponential planetary coverage of a single individual's, one primate's among billions, middle left toe and the gunk beneath the toenail. New study says humanity will be extinct by 2050, in this chaos you are already walking up and down the interstates trying not to be murdered, but one image is fixated in your mind, one certain human's ... face...was it worth it?

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Autonomous Next Generation Leaks [re: WL, N ways u change world, etc]
by grarpamp 04 Jun '19

04 Jun '19

On 6/4/19, John Young <jya(a)pipeline.com> wrote:> > Memorable: his tortured dick (thx Camp) Assange hoisted by fellating > Assangists. > > WikiLeaks is a pretty good (thx Zimmermann) fictional joke name, not > overlooking the list of 140 things really non-true about the cahootenanny. > > Movie Fail-Safe is pretty good at megadeath comedizing, still > awaiting takedown of privacy, crypto, terror, sexual assault. > > Prosecutors rely on fictional non-fiction. Let's not forget that there are parties participating in these global "law, journalism, etc" conversations that are in direct publishing competition with WikiLeaks, in conflict of interest, often holding anti-freedom pro-themselves forcibly over others philosophies. Some of them who have already by some combination whether voluntarily, or by pressure, or by force... taken down their own prior publications... whether they be true, or opinion, or even as acceptable and right when proven false... yet often when taken down, done so silently with no published explanation as to why. Some of them who have never published information that was classified at the time of publishing as TOP SECRET, nor SECRET, or even CLASSIFIED, rendering their conversation perhaps at times an envious attack vs altruistic support, or a side bid advert to be in receipt for their own glory. Some who would never publish same, and some who would take it down when asked, most well before expending their own cryptocurrency coinbag on freedom of speech trial, or their years on contempt or other imprisonment. No. Some of these issues make it apparent things are largely and rightly in the hands of the "leakers" as the ones who ensure their message of the truth at least gets heard, as unredacted, unfiltered, uninterpreted, uncensored, unmetered, and untakedowned as they intend... whether anonymously on the distributed networks, in the Library stacks, wherever good... even their own voice on the call in hour of their local 2600 hackerspace guerrilla radio show, followed by distribution packets transmitted via SDR to all, amplified and repeated by hammy hackery of others worldwide over tropospheric bounce. Gear up, test opsec, redundancy survival permanence distribution, and send your message.

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18 ways Julian Assange changed the world (by Lee Camp) - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 04 Jun '19

04 Jun '19

Lee Camp puts into words the significant headlines (positives) re Julian Assange. Thank you Lee Camp. 18 ways Julian Assange changed the world (by Lee Camp) https://www.rt.com/op-ed/460935-julian-assange-changed-world/ In an evolved and fully realized society, the oligarchy would see Assange as a dangerous criminal (which they do), and the average working men and women would view him as justice personified (which they don’t). We would celebrate him even as the mass media told us to hope for his downfall—like a Batman or a Robin Hood or an Ozzy Osbourne (the early years, not the cleaning-dog-turds-off-his-carpet years). But we are not evolved and this is not Gotham City and average Americans don’t root for the truth. Many Americans cheer for Assange’s imprisonment. They believe the corporate plutocratic talking points and yearn for the days when we no longer have to hear about our country’s crimes against humanity or our bankers’ crimes against the economy. Subconsciously they must believe that a life in which we’re tirelessly exploited by rich villains and know all about it thanks to the exhaustive efforts of an eccentric Australian is worse than one in which we’re tirelessly exploited by rich villains yet know nothing about it. “Ignorance is bliss” is the meditative mantra of the United States of America. Julian Assange has been arrested and is now locked away in British custody. The U.S. government wants to extradite him, regardless of the official version, for the crime of revealing our government’s crimes. Nearly every government on our third rock from the sun despises the man for bringing transparency to the process of ruling the unwashed masses. (The level of wash has, however, increased thanks to aggressive marketing campaigns from a variety of shampoo brands.) It is politically inconvenient at this time for the screaming corporate news to remind our entire citizenry what exactly WikiLeaks has done for us. So you won’t see the following list of WikiLeaks’ accomplishments anywhere on your corporate airwaves—in the same way the mainstream media did not begin every report about Chelsea Manning’s trial with a rundown of the war crimes she helped reveal. And Chelsea Manning’s most famous leak is arguably also WikiLeaks’ most famous leak, so it’ll top this list: 1) That would be the notorious Collateral Murder video, showing U.S. air crew gunning down unarmed Iraqi civilians with an enthusiasm that couldn’t be matched by an eight-year-old winning a five-foot-tall stuffed animal at the county fair. They murdered between 12 and 18 innocent people, two of them Reuters journalists. Zero people have been arrested for the collateral murders. Yet Julian Assange has been arrested for revealing them. 2) WikiLeaks brought us the Guantanamo Bay “Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures”—showing that many of the prisoners held on the U.S. military detention facility were completely innocent, and that some were hidden from Red Cross officials. (Because when you’re torturing innocent people, you kinda want to do that in peace and quiet, away from prying eyes. It’s very easy to get distracted, and then you lose your place and have to start all over again.) None of the soldiers torturing innocent people at Gitmo have been arrested for it. Yet Julian Assange has been arrested for revealing it. 3) Not content with revealing only war crimes, WikiLeaks in 2008 came out with the secret bibles of Scientology, which showed that aliens, um, run the world or… aliens are inside all of us or… aliens give us indigestion. I can’t really remember. But no one has ever been arrested for perpetrating that nutbag cult. Yet Julian Assange has for revealing it. ...

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The Next Web: Physics breakthrough should solve quantum computing’s dead cat problem
by jim bell 04 Jun '19

04 Jun '19

The Next Web: Physics breakthrough should solve quantum computing’s dead cat problem. https://thenextweb.com/science/2019/06/03/physics-breakthrough-should-solve…

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Swedish Assange Detention Order Dismissed, Alternate EU Order Suggested
by John Young 03 Jun '19

03 Jun '19

http://www.uppsalatingsratt.domstol.se/Om-tingsratten/Nyheter-och-pressmedd… Decision concerning an application for a detention order in Case B 3167-19 [2019-06-03] Uppsala tingsrätt Uppsala District Court has dismissed the public prosecutors request to detain Julian Assange in his absence. A detention order would not be in accordance with the principle of proportionality. The public prosecutor reopened the preliminary investigation on May 13, 2019 and applied for a detention order at the Court on May 20, 2019. The suspicion of crime is rape, less serious incident, in Enköping in 2010. The Court has, at a hearing today, decided that there is probable cause for the suspicion of rape, less serious incident, and that there is a risk that Julian Assange will fail to appear or in some other way avoid participation in the investigation and the following proceedings. The Court has, however, found that a detention order would not be in accordance with the principle of proportionality. Since Julian Assange is serving a prison sentence the public prosecutor can proceed with the preliminary investigation by issuing a European Investigation Order.

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Autonomous Next Generation Leaks
by grarpamp 03 Jun '19

03 Jun '19

Continuing... https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2019-June/075229.html > shut the fuck up Unacceptable... this complicit architechting of immorality... preserving the thieving means, murderous lives, and lying facades of those pouring hostile architecture from articulated tentacles of concrete pumpers, the structures of secret and dishonest malactors, the puppetmasters safehouses, topped with feedhorns for amplifying their own wet dreams. > Tell what you know > unfettered revelation, "dumping" and > failing to abide the rules of rigging. Much better... this weathering acid rain against the lime. Distributed anonymous tech offers additional options. Dump all, for all to see, and for none to takedown or filter. No redaction, but to preserve self for more action or escape. No gatekept interpreters, no contracted terms, no filtered pump and dumps, no clawbacks permitted. An unfound autonomous mole, if tis your delight, yet always prepared ahead for instant escape, a last deadman script ensuring redundant release of the Family Jewels liberated from their concrete and copper Presidios lit at night by sparkly fiber optic trees. The delivery girl, janitor, Lady of the Night, secretary, maintenance crew, executive director, computer nerd, brilliant analyst, or researcher... all can be equally effective in such operations. Perhaps data even distributed by speech in Central or Gorky Park, or the sprinkling of many Gigabytes on many USB's around the next cryptocurrency meetup, a distributed filestore retrieval hash sent via shitexpress.com message field to the haters for lols, whatever is interesting, leaving behind a whirlwind in the dust of your coattails. Take time, be safe from capture, survive... if that is of import. Is the point of leaking not impact toward whatever change may come... don't hold back, cut deep and let the cards fall. https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/31/edward-who-the-snowden-affair-ends-… Edward Who? The Snowden Affair Ends with a Whimper By Bill Blunden On May 31, 2019 “Do not send to those who tout secure drops, Tor, crypto-comms – these are traceable, diagrammable via basic net transmission tech.” –Cryptome It’s been more than six years since Edward Snowden went public. After all the breathless headlines, Hollywood movies, book deals, Pulitzer prizes, and glossy primetime biopics. What, pray tell, has come of it? For the average American – bupkis. In fact, mass surveillance is actually growing by leaps and bounds. Such that those who wish to salvage the remnants of their individual privacy will be forced to make some tough choices in the years ahead. Ed Snowden, holed up in Russia, has faded into history. At the forefront of the Snowden disclosures, the news outlet known as The Intercept has officially shuttered its archives. They made their moulah and moved on. And what of the considerable streak of confidential sources who’ve been thrown in the pokey? The editors aren’t talking much about how that happened. In fact they seem more interested in selling people email servers in a box. Hey, is this web page supposed to be an advertisement or an article? In the era of social media it can be hard to tell the difference. History offers a glimpse behind the curtain. During the early days of the Cold War it was common practice for the political leaders in the Soviet Union to purge the KGB every so often. Because over time Russian spymasters accrued enough political dirt and power that they threatened to take over. With the ascendance of Vladimir Putin one might argue that the rebranded KGB finally succeeded. In a similar manner, American intelligence escaped the Snowden revelations largely unscathed. That, dear reader, ought to tell you something. Sure there was lots of grandstanding and feigned outrage. Sure CEOs made bold statements of renunciation (ahem, after being caught in bed with spies). Keeping the kayfabe alive, as Jesse Ventura might say. Rest assured, claims Apple CEO Tim Cook, your iPhone would never ever spy on you. Yeah, and the relationship between Silicon Valley and government spies is completely adversarial, they can’t stand each other. Just like the blood feud Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan back in the late 1980s. Uh-huh, just like that. A total farce which the media enables because that’s what they’re paid to do. But ultimately what matters is concrete institutional change. And there’s been zero of that, as in nada. Because genuine privacy threatens advertising revenue, quarterly returns, and spy power. And the elites want to keep the money train chugging along. Perhaps it no surprise then that the legislative response to Snowden was so watered down that one former spy chief publicly lampooned it. Let’s hear three cheers for state capture. You can almost hear Otis Pike weeping in his grave. Most advocates prefer to end their op-eds on a hopeful note. But sometimes hope is just a lightweight form of denial. The kind of “hope” that keeps Silicon Valley in business. Though it’s painful to concede, the spies at Fort Meade hit the nail on the head: we’re mostly zombies who pay for our own surveillance. Please go back and re-read the previous sentence. Short of a massive political upheaval things aren’t going to change. Which means that, for the immediate future, the really big changes will have to take place on a personal level. And so we arrive at the “tough choices” mentioned at the beginning. Members of the establishment often whine about discussing tradecraft because they believe that doing so might aid and abet terrorists. But the truth is that the channel of useful information is actually flowing in the opposite direction. From wanted fugitives to the public. The kernel of an approach can be found out in the field. Where poor security is fatal. Hunted by the world’s most formidable military, the head of ISIS is still alive thanks to solid operations security, also known as OPSEC. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is definitely a leader who appreciates OPSEC. According to the New York Times, “he eschews all electronic devices, which could identify his location, and probably communicates through a series of couriers.” The key to staying vertical, then, is the process surrounding the couriers. How they’re compartmented, screened, and arranged to create a resilient communication network. No doubt al-Baghdadi is aware that a flawed courier scheme was a significant factor in the downfall of Osama bin Laden. Edward Snowden likes to promote strong cryptography. Leaving people with the notion that staying under the radar is a matter of leveraging a technical quick fix. But recent history shows that trusting your life to an allegedly secure communication platform is an act of faith. And not an advisable one, especially when state sponsored operators enter the picture. Achieving higher levels of security requires a disciplined process which is anything but a quick fix and which often entails giving up technology. Even cartel bosses learn this lesson: security technology fails. Both my design and by accident. Spies win either way.

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Re: Autonomous Next Generation Leaks
by John Young 03 Jun '19

03 Jun '19

Quite helpful suggestions. Probably should give up use of "leak" due to it becoming a marketing term, It now exaggerates, over-emphasizes content, "coutures," vaunts the predictable and traceable process from source to outlet. Public library could work, just deposit material in a place to be found, discovered, almost accidentally, belatedly, maybe never, or right away, rather than greedily hyped to the max by media monsters which twist the content to favor the commercial industry (including the promo-addled gov, NGO, op-ed, essay, speech, SM, mail lists, et al). Searching for and possibly sharing (or not) material on your own, at your own pace, at your own method, in a widely varying terrain, without spoon feeding by computer, print, TED, influencer, headliner, hustlers and promoters is far better because it limits external, highly-biased management of understanding and subsequent action. Marketing has fucked consumers (marketing term) online and offline, not just with illusory privacy and security, but by excluding and demeaning "unimportant" information. It deliberately distorts, okay, lies and thereby encourages consumers to do the same as normality. It may take an effort to overcome what "education" has instilled in its consumers about significance, obedience, careerism, language, technology, finance, arts, the works. Leaks scream, most often incoherently, and induce screaming and babbling in response. Silence is worth practicing, avoid being noticed, angered, goaded, offended and responsive behavior documented. Trust and truth these days are cheap desperate houswifey brands. So too democracy. At 07:51 PM 6/2/2019, you wrote: >Continuing... >https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2019-June/075229.html > > > shut the fuck up > >Unacceptable... this complicit architechting of immorality... >preserving the thieving means, murderous lives, and lying >facades of those pouring hostile architecture from articulated >tentacles of concrete pumpers, the structures of secret and >dishonest malactors, the puppetmasters safehouses, topped >with feedhorns for amplifying their own wet dreams. > > > Tell what you know > > unfettered revelation, "dumping" and > > failing to abide the rules of rigging. > >Much better... this weathering acid rain against the lime. >Distributed anonymous tech offers additional options. >Dump all, for all to see, and for none to takedown or filter. >No redaction, but to preserve self for more action or escape. >No gatekept interpreters, no contracted terms, >no filtered pump and dumps, no clawbacks permitted. >An unfound autonomous mole, if tis your delight, yet always >prepared ahead for instant escape, a last deadman script ensuring >redundant release of the Family Jewels liberated from their >concrete and copper Presidios lit at night by sparkly fiber optic trees. >The delivery girl, janitor, Lady of the Night, secretary, maintenance >crew, executive director, computer nerd, brilliant analyst, or researcher... >all can be equally effective in such operations. Perhaps data even >distributed by speech in Central or Gorky Park, or the sprinkling of many >Gigabytes on many USB's around the next cryptocurrency meetup, >a distributed filestore retrieval hash sent via shitexpress.com >message field to the haters for lols, whatever is interesting, >leaving behind a whirlwind in the dust of your coattails. >Take time, be safe from capture, survive... if that is of import. >Is the point of leaking not impact toward whatever change >may come... don't hold back, cut deep and let the cards fall. > > > > > >https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/31/edward-who-the-snowden-affair-ends-… >Edward Who? The Snowden Affair Ends with a Whimper >By Bill Blunden On May 31, 2019 > > âDo not send to those who tout secure drops, Tor, crypto-comms >these are traceable, diagrammable via basic net transmission tech.â > > Cryptome >Itâs been more than six years since Edward Snowden went public. After >all the breathless headlines, Hollywood movies, book deals, Pulitzer >prizes, and glossy primetime biopics. What, pray tell, has come of it? >For the average American bupkis. In fact, mass surveillance is >actually growing by leaps and bounds. Such that those who wish to >salvage the remnants of their individual privacy will be forced to >make some tough choices in the years ahead. > >Ed Snowden, holed up in Russia, has faded into history. At the >forefront of the Snowden disclosures, the news outlet known as The >Intercept has officially shuttered its archives. They made their >moulah and moved on. And what of the considerable streak of >confidential sources whoâve been thrown in the pokey? The editors >arenât talking much about how that happened. In fact they seem more >interested in selling people email servers in a box. Hey, is this web >page supposed to be an advertisement or an article? In the era of >social media it can be hard to tell the difference. > >History offers a glimpse behind the curtain. During the early days of >the Cold War it was common practice for the political leaders in the >Soviet Union to purge the KGB every so often. Because over time >Russian spymasters accrued enough political dirt and power that they >threatened to take over. With the ascendance of Vladimir Putin one >might argue that the rebranded KGB finally succeeded. > >In a similar manner, American intelligence escaped the Snowden >revelations largely unscathed. That, dear reader, ought to tell you >something. Sure there was lots of grandstanding and feigned outrage. >Sure CEOs made bold statements of renunciation (ahem, after being >caught in bed with spies). Keeping the kayfabe alive, as Jesse Ventura >might say. Rest assured, claims Apple CEO Tim Cook, your iPhone would >never ever spy on you. Yeah, and the relationship between Silicon >Valley and government spies is completely adversarial, they canât >stand each other. Just like the blood feud Andre the Giant and Hulk >Hogan back in the late 1980s. Uh-huh, just like that. A total >farce which the media enables because thatâs what theyâre paid to do. > >But ultimately what matters is concrete institutional change. And >thereâs been zero of that, as in nada. Because genuine privacy >threatens advertising revenue, quarterly returns, and spy power. And >the elites want to keep the money train chugging along. Perhaps it no >surprise then that the legislative response to Snowden was so watered >down that one former spy chief publicly lampooned it. Letâs hear three >cheers for state capture. > >You can almost hear Otis Pike weeping in his grave. > >Most advocates prefer to end their op-eds on a hopeful note. But >sometimes hope is just a lightweight form of denial. The kind of >âhopeâ that keeps Silicon Valley in business. Though itâs painful to >concede, the spies at Fort Meade hit the nail on the head: weâre >mostly zombies who pay for our own surveillance. Please go back and >re-read the previous sentence. Short of a massive political upheaval >things arenât going to change. Which means that, for the immediate >future, the really big changes will have to take place on a personal >level. > >And so we arrive at the âtough choicesâ mentioned at the beginning. >Members of the establishment often whine about discussing tradecraft >because they believe that doing so might aid and abet terrorists. But >the truth is that the channel of useful information is actually >flowing in the opposite direction. From wanted fugitives to the >public. > >The kernel of an approach can be found out in the field. Where poor >security is fatal. Hunted by the worldâs most formidable military, the >head of ISIS is still alive thanks to solid operations security, also >known as OPSEC. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is definitely a leader who >appreciates OPSEC. According to the New York Times, âhe eschews all >electronic devices, which could identify his location, and probably >communicates through a series of couriers.â The key to staying >vertical, then, is the process surrounding the couriers. How theyâre >compartmented, screened, and arranged to create a resilient >communication network. No doubt al-Baghdadi is aware that a flawed >courier scheme was a significant factor in the downfall of Osama bin >Laden. > >Edward Snowden likes to promote strong cryptography. Leaving people >with the notion that staying under the radar is a matter of leveraging >a technical quick fix. But recent history shows that trusting your >life to an allegedly secure communication platform is an act of faith. >And not an advisable one, especially when state sponsored operators >enter the picture. Achieving higher levels of security requires a >disciplined process which is anything but a quick fix and which often >entails giving up technology. Even cartel bosses learn this lesson: >security technology fails. Both my design and by accident. Spies win >either way.

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