Prism and Verizon surveillance discussion thread

[Triple Zero]

Ever tried putting an alogorithm in prison? 

Well, actually ... they use the "chroot jail", and various forms of sandboxing.

That most probably won't hold a Strong AI, though, as Eliezer Yudkowsky demonstrated in several roleplaying experiments.

[Triple Zero]

Err
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/08/11/1244209/after-lavabit-shut-down-dotcoms-mega-promises-secure-mail?sdsrc=rel

Lavabit may no longer be an option, but recent events have driven interest in email and other ways to communicate without exposing quite so much, quite so fast, to organizations like the NSA (and DEA, and other agencies). Kim Dotcom as usual enjoys filling the spotlight, when it comes to shuttling bits around in ways that don't please the U.S. government, and Dotcom's privacy-oriented Mega has disclosed plans to serve as an email provider with an emphasis on encryption. ZDNet features an interview with Mega's CEO Vikram Kumar about the complications of keeping email relatively secure; it's not so much the encryption itself, as keeping bits encrypted while still providing the kind of features that users have come to expect from modern webmail providers like Gmail:
"'The biggest tech hurdle is providing email functionality that people expect, such as searching emails, that are trivial to provide if emails are stored in plain text (or available in plain text) on the server side,' Kumar said. 'If all the server can see is encrypted text, as is the case with true end-to-end encryption, then all the functionality has to be built client side. [That's] not quite impossible but very, very hard. That's why even Silent Circle didn't go there.'"

Are people really going to trust Mega enough to use their secure private email service? I fucking doubt it. In fact, I'd guess them making something like this would be the little justification the need to go after all of them hard due to piracy concerns. With the fallout from the inital Mega debacle still ongoing and plenty of data destroyed/lost/in government hands/limbo I'd avoid this like the fucking plague.

From what I've heard, Mega is really trying to get things right, from a security perspective. Their algorithms are open source and they invite security testers to find holes in it.

I haven't read much about this project recently though, and personally I'd hold off using it for a while until at least a couple of bugs are found and squashed.

[Triple Zero]

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated,

I am now coining the phrase "recreational drug enforcement".

[Telarus]

 

[Telarus]

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-broke-privacy-rules-thousands-of-times-per-year-audit-finds/2013/08/15/3310e554-05ca-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_story.html

[Cain]

This caught my eye:

A third [incident] involved the interception of an unspecified "large number" of phone records from the Washington DC 202 area code in 2008, when an NSA "programming error" improperly entered 202 instead of 20, the country code for Egypt. The Post reported that the NSA did not report that improper interception of American communications to Congress or the Fisa court.

Just an honest mistake, I'm sure.  What could the NSA possibly gain by intercepting a large number of phone records in Washington DC, in an election year?

[Telarus]

Yes, that caught my eye as well.

[Telarus]

"Ace of Spades HQ" has some slanted stories, but sometimes hit's it right on the head:

White House Attempted to Rewrite Key Quotes in Washington Post Story on NSA Surveillance Violations
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/342567.php

"It makes you wonder what adjustments they have successfully made, that would make them feel they could do such here." -the friend who passed this along.

[Cain]

Yeah, Ace of Spades is a bit of a loon, but this is worth noting.

As is this:

http://www.verizonenterprise.com/news/2013/08/us-department-interior-cloud-contract

The U.S. Department of the Interior has selected Verizon to participate in a $10 billion, 10-year contract to provide cloud and hosting services. This is potentially one of Verizon's largest federal cloud contracts to date.

Verizon is one of 10 companies that will compete to offer cloud-based storage, secure file transfer, virtual machine, and database, Web, and development and test environment hosting services. The company is also one of four selected to offer SAP application hosting services.

Well, I guess that's one way to shut Verizon up.  I'm sure their board are much less concerned about spying, now that $10 billion is on the cards for the next decade.

[Junkenstein]

NOTHING SUSPICIOUS HERE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23750289

The police will be asked to justify the detention of a journalist's partner under terror laws, the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee has said.

Keith Vaz said the full facts of David Miranda's nine-hour detention at Heathrow must be established quickly.

Mr Miranda's partner is the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, who has written about US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed Mr Miranda was held but has not explained why he was detained.

MOVE ALONG

[tyrannosaurus vex]

NOTHING SUSPICIOUS HERE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23750289

The police will be asked to justify the detention of a journalist's partner under terror laws, the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee has said.

Keith Vaz said the full facts of David Miranda's nine-hour detention at Heathrow must be established quickly.

Mr Miranda's partner is the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, who has written about US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed Mr Miranda was held but has not explained why he was detained.

MOVE ALONG

It's not what you think. He wasn't detained because he is involved in the (clearly illegal) practice of journalism, though that would have been a good enough reason. In fact he was maintained because his last name is "Miranda," and the UK doesn't want the same problems arresting people that the US has because of someone who shared that surname.

[Junkenstein]

To be honest he's quite lucky really. He could have been shot for being conspicuously Brazilian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes

[The Good Reverend Roger]

NOTHING SUSPICIOUS HERE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23750289

The police will be asked to justify the detention of a journalist's partner under terror laws, the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee has said.

Keith Vaz said the full facts of David Miranda's nine-hour detention at Heathrow must be established quickly.

Mr Miranda's partner is the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, who has written about US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed Mr Miranda was held but has not explained why he was detained.

MOVE ALONG

Fucking wow.   

[The Good Reverend Roger]

At what point do we just go full potato and start issuing armbands to the faithful?

[tyrannosaurus vex]

At what point do we just go full potato and start issuing armbands to the faithful?

Wasteful government spending.

The armbands will be mandatory, but you'll be expected to buy your own. Or, of course, your church can help you out.