Harvard: No, Crypto Isn't Making the FBI Go Dark 59
Trailrunner7 writes: The FBI and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have warned for years that the increased use of encryption by consumers is making surveillance and lawful interception much more difficult, impeding investigations. But a new study by a group of experts at Harvard's Berkman Center says those claims are largely overblown and that the IoT revolution will give agencies plenty of new chances for clear-channel surveillance.
"We argue that communications in the future will neither be eclipsed into darkness nor illuminated without shadow. Market forces and commercial interests will likely limit the circumstances in which companies will offer encryption that obscures user data from the companies themselves, and the trajectory of technological development points to a future abundant in unencrypted data, some of which can fill gaps left by the very communication channels law enforcement fears will 'go dark' and beyond reach," the Berkman Center report says.
"We argue that communications in the future will neither be eclipsed into darkness nor illuminated without shadow. Market forces and commercial interests will likely limit the circumstances in which companies will offer encryption that obscures user data from the companies themselves, and the trajectory of technological development points to a future abundant in unencrypted data, some of which can fill gaps left by the very communication channels law enforcement fears will 'go dark' and beyond reach," the Berkman Center report says.
Dear Harvard: The FBI is lying (Score:5, Insightful)
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Harvard knows full well the FBI is lying, this entire study is Harvard's way of publicly calling them out.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki_dance
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Well, here's the insight that Orwell missed. (Score:4, Insightful)
He never envisioned that, instead of a totalitarian government imposing viewscreens on everyone and then pounding the populace into submission, one could just offer "reality programming" on the viewscreens. The populace pounds itself into submission, and all a government has to do is plug into the APIs that everyone has voluntarily installed in every room of every house. And if there wasn't a totalitarian government already in existence, well, preinstalled omnipresence and omniscience certainly makes a fertile field in which one can sprout.
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Good thing the 0.01% are thinking ahead and managed to unanimously ratify a covert treaty spelling out precisely how to divvy up among themselves the spoils sprout.
Otherwise, the fertile soil could turn into dense, tangled jungle underbrush instead of trusting up a solitary Mallorn tree fruiting at its spire a great, flaming eagle, as this narrative assumes and requires.
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He never envisioned that, instead of a totalitarian government imposing viewscreens on everyone and then pounding the populace into submission, one could just offer "reality programming" on the viewscreens.
http://highexistence.com/amusi... [highexistence.com]
'Surveillance and lawful interception' (Score:1)
If it's not both warranted and public, you shouldn't be able to get it in the first place.
Re:'Surveillance and lawful interception' (Score:4, Insightful)
He doesn't think?
He neither thinks for everyone nor speaks for everyone. The mass of people tend to believe the US government is spying to protect them so they don't care.
They forget that the fastest way to lose civil liberties is by failing to stand up for the rights of the worst people in society--thieves, murderers, investment bankers, terrorists.
You don't just protect the rights of minorities because of egalitarian or meritocratic principles. You do it because so long as you can slice society up into little segments and take the rights away from one group, everyone's rights are at risk.
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The mass of people tend to believe the US government is spying to protect them so they don't care.
The mass of people don't know and many who do also do not care.
However there is also likely a large portion who do know but don't understand.
Just watch the John Oliver segment with Edward Snowden where they explain this with dick pics. Suddenly people on the street give a fuck.
Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
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High efficiency clothes washer. I've watched, and I can't find where it attempts to connect to anything. The price was right, the savings in water and electricity are great, so I put up with it. The wife is happy with it. As I say, I've watched carefully, and it has never made an appearance on the network. I HOPE it's alright.
If/when it breaks down, I may or may not be able to repair it.
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I can see the utility of having a washer on the internet. It would then be able to alert you when the wash is done. I waste more time rewashing loads because I forgot about them in the daily grind than the privacy of my washing machine is really worth.
My 0.02 (Score:5, Informative)
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Because OMG, Google is totally going to hack you by changing the TIME on your computer. Wow, that is some serious paranoia there.
In other words... (Score:2)
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The herd of humans (Score:3)
Given the need to profit from users interactions the need to "reach out" will be the security forces way in.
Encryption will not offer privacy on services, hardware and devices designed to track users habits.
Privacy cannot be created if every movement is been logged.
A journalist found to be sitting next to a whistleblower for 20 mins. Both having their cell phones on is not safe if they take notes on paper and have the phone powered (battery sealed in by design).
Encryption that is weak by design or an OS that is created with gov approved trap doors and back doors is not encryption, just an expensive keylogger.
Watch for the honey trap and any new best friends if using encryption and understanding its limitations on any network.
If your a company or brand, fly in your staff, talk face to face in a vault, use all paper files. Any data on a connected server is in the public or a billing system thats used globally. Keep new projects and all readable data away from networks. Buying junk turn key encryption or cloud products from nations that allow designers to share your data with their gov, mil, other nations is not the best idea.
Understand the positive and negative pressure a mil or gov will place on a supplier of encryption, cloud or other computer products for domestic or export use.
Leadership in some brands will even weaken their products or collect all or allow a gov/mil in.
Re the "bulk surveillance" and "targeted surveillance"
Encryption without privacy is just a location to send gov or mil bespoke malware down to.
Privacy with junk encryption is a plaintext message.
IoT (Score:2)
Washington State here. What with our recent legalization of pot, it's going to be fun watching the stoners after you tell them that their toaster is watching them.
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I build toasters that watch you for a living, you insensitive clod!
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was'nt it the smart tv which sends a live stream of the living room to servers in Korea?
Now of course the IT guys there will do the same thing Snowden reported of the NSA folks, sharing the best among themselves. Sooner or later those find their way to a tumblr of xhamster, posted from there to your fav pr0n chat and that's how you get to lnow your wife's lovers.
And vice versa.
In the long run this will void a lot of hyprocisy
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If a device is accessing your home WiFi, then at least some of this can be mitigated by having a decently intelligent and configurable router. That will have to do until APK can develop a hosts file we can upload to our TVs, microwaves and HVAC system.
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gonna be fun then,
for we'll have to root the fridge, the smart bulbs, the smoke detectors, each of them or we cannot change the hosts file.
Now with evry downloaded firmware update your lightbulbs (each of them) go into blinking mode and, since they are rooted and cannot install the update silently, you have to address and fastboot them, one by one, and then re-root, and then reinstall the edited hosts file, and reboot the bulb.
Possible, but not feasable
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That's just a little bit on the silly side. You install the HOSTS file on the router, not every machine in the neighborhood. Tomato and DDWRT both have the capability, depending on precisely which version you've installed.
DO NOT expect any commercial offerings with such configurability - certainly not consumer grade products.
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Or run your own DNS server and run the entries there, where the performance is considerably better.
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What if it accesses your neighbor's WiFi instead? It doesn't even have to be a neighbor who failed to secure his wifi - he might just have Comcast.
Well Duh! (Score:1)
The FBI and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have warned for years that the increased use of encryption by consumers is making surveillance and lawful interception much more difficult, impeding investigations.
I don't think there is ANYONE that actually believes this. There has already been many rebuttals on Comey's lies about prosecutions in jeopardy because of encryption. Every single one of the cases he has mentioned in interviews was successfully prosecuted without needing the encrypted cell phone data. Proper police work can bypass most encryption, but require warrants and probable cause (and most importantly, actual effort). This is where the problem is, not in encrypted data.
FBI going dark? (Score:5, Informative)
More than IoT..... TOS (Score:3)
Terms of Service (TOS) and people agreeing to give all their info up is going to do us in, as someone mentioned above about Orwell envisioned government oppression doing it, but it is actually people *giving up freedom* that is a much more devious thing. Gradual and it feels good to have all this convenience and security...... a warm blanket that someday may smother you......
I've been forced into the IoT (Score:2)
The other day, I noticed I had less clearance on my narrow side path of my house, to roll out my trash cans... all of a sudden, my gas meter has gotten "smart" on me - and its readout panel now an inch or so thicker thicker than it was before...
Come to think of it... the Borg Logo [wikipedia.org] looks a lot like a gas utility logo...
* - letter said they would come out at such and such a date, knock on the door, then c
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Clearly your installer, like your UPS, sucks.
It was done properly in our location -- knock on door, and I was able to observe the process.
This just in: (Score:2)
People locking their front doors will force law enforcement to follow due process!
*GASP*!