Real-Time Gmail Spying a 'Top Priority' For FBI This Year 283
Fnord666 sends this quote from an article at Slate:
"Despite the pervasiveness of law enforcement surveillance of digital communication, the FBI still has a difficult time monitoring Gmail, Google Voice, and Dropbox in real time. But that may change soon, because the bureau says it has made gaining more powers to wiretap all forms of Internet conversation and cloud storage a 'top priority' this year. ... a 1994 surveillance law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act only allows the government to force Internet providers and phone companies to install surveillance equipment within their networks. But it doesn't cover email, cloud services, or online chat providers like Skype. Weissmann said that the FBI wants the power to mandate real-time surveillance of everything from Dropbox and online games ('the chat feature in Scrabble') to Gmail and Google Voice. 'Those communications are being used for criminal conversations,' he said."
BitMessage (Score:5, Informative)
Fuck That Shit [bitmessage.org]
This Country is Going to Hell (Score:2, Informative)
And the most frightening (or maybe depressing? disgusting? angering?) things about it are how quickly it's happening in a little backlash there is from the general public.
The thing is, any modernized country in the world has the same access to this type of technology and could be proposing similarly oppressive actions ... and yet most of them are not.
What is so chronically wrong with Americans that the ones in charge pull shit like this and everyone else puts up with it?
Re:Its things like this (Score:4, Informative)
That is becoming less true. Many servers (including GMAIL's) support SMTPTLS. Unfortuanately, the lack of certificate validation (because few mailservers have signed certificates) makes them open to man-in-the-middle attacks, but not to simple packet sniffing.
Re:Who wants to make their lives interesting? (Score:5, Informative)
they could just use stenography
Stenography is shorthand, not to be confused with steganography, which Wiki even points out. The only reason I know this off the top of my head is because I'm a stegosaurus.
Re:Who wants to make their lives interesting? (Score:5, Informative)
there is a detectible difference between a picture, for example, that has hidden data and one that does not.
That would be failed steganography - the equivalent of someone successfully decrypting an encrypted communication. Steganography is considered successful only when it has not been detected.
Re:Any communication channel (Score:2, Informative)
"You have nothing to fear if you're not doing anything wrong."
Whenever you post this, you also should post a link to Three Felonies A Day [amazon.com], and maybe some articles involving the TSA and IRS auditing.
Re:Who wants to make their lives interesting? (Score:5, Informative)
Informative post could be more informative:
https://ssd.eff.org/tech/im [eff.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging [wikipedia.org]