[funsec] Re: AT&T's database of 1.92 trillion phone calls (Sprint does it too, and i'm sure they aren't the only ones)

[coderman]

On 2/27/06, Brian Loe <knobdy at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> This kind of thing doesn't scare me. What they wind up doing with it,
> at times, does scare me. What scares me even more is that no one will
> ever do anything about it on a scale that matters.

i'd have to agree, with regards to corporate or government entities
making strong individual privacy a priority _on their own accord_ with
this kind of applied information technology.[1]

so the only feasible solution is empowering users to take
responsibility for their own information security and privacy.  if
"johnny can't encrypt"[2] this is a very tall order indeed[3].

what would the ideal minimum amount of information exposed consist of
if you could apply usable security/encryption and privacy enhancing
technologies to the usual communications today (voice, text, video,
data)?

- no content of payloads, due to end to end encryption
- strong anonymous mix networks for non interactive messaging
- weakly anonymous low latency onion/relay networks for near real time messaging
- seamless wireless and sneaker net support to offload locally/out of
band whenever possible

you'd still be exposing:
- location of endpoints used (except in the strong and latent mix
scenario perhaps)
- distinct parties involved (social network analysis)
- volume of encrypted traffic exchanged

i suppose the real question is how long would it take to design and
implement (and the hardware to support it prevalent for all users).

5 years seems extremely optimistic given the difficulties involved.
[and i suppose this also means the paranoid will all become proficient
TSCM technicians.]

ah, we can dream :)
until then, the fraction of unusual end lusers making use of strong
privacy enhancing technologies will be a function of how annoying they
are to use vs. how annoying the government privacy invasion programs
become.  single digits for the near future...


---

[1.] "DoJ strikes back against Google (your privacy concerns are
unfounded (lol))"
  http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29918

[2.] "NPR : E-Mail Encryption Rare in Everyday Use"
 http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg05769.html

[3.] " User Interaction Design for Secure Systems"
 http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~pingster/sec/uid/

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS::

A. Path of Least Resistance. The most natural way to do any task should
also be the most secure way.

B. Appropriate Boundaries. The interface should expose, and the system
should enforce, distinctions between objects and between actions along
boundaries that matter to the user.

C. Explicit Authorization. A user's authorities must only be provided to
other actors as a result of an explicit user action that is understood
to imply granting.

D. Visibility. The interface should allow the user to easily review any
active actors and authority relationships that would affect
security-relevant decisions.

E. Revocability. The interface should allow the user to easily revoke
authorities that the user has granted, wherever revocation is
possible.

F. Trusted Path. The interface must provide an unspoofable and faithful
communication channel between the user and any entity trusted to
manipulate authorities on the user's behalf.

G. Identifiability. The interface should enforce that distinct objects
and distinct actions have unspoofably identifiable and distinguishable
representations.