When Everything On The Internet Is Encrypted...
from the things-may-change-a-bit dept
For years, we've been pointing out that as the entertainment industry, telcos and the government increase efforts to spy on the activities of users (for various reasons, good or bad), all it's going to do is speed the adoption of encryption technologies. Well, that appears to be happening. Thanks to governments increasing the ability to spy on citizens combined with ISPs capitulating to entertainment industry and government demands to start acting as copyright cops, monitoring usage, more and more people are getting interested in encrypting their internet activity. While it's unclear if it will go anywhere (and some argue it's guaranteed to fail), the folks behind the Pirate Bay are the latest to jump into the game, promising a system that will "encrypt the entire internet."Whether accomplished by The Pirate Bay or others, this is the near inevitable end result of this cat and mouse game. Even if you believe the entertainment industry, broadband providers and the government have both the best of intentions and the absolute right to do these kinds of monitoring activity, the fact that encryption will make it so those who don't want to monitored can hide means that it's only going to become more popular. And, at that point, it only makes the efforts by the entertainment industry, the broadband providers and the government that much more useless -- because all that monitoring they've pushed to do will not only be nearly impossible, but they've also lost the trust and respect of all those users/customers/constituents. It's a true lesson in the unintended consequences of getting what you wished for.
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Filed Under: encryption
Companies: pirate bay
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Encryption - Does it really work for torrent?
One thing that I've pondered in the past is how practical is encryption for torrent related activities.
Since torrents are for the most part open access and the protocols/programs effectively open source how does encryption help?
The keys for the encryption are given out when you join the swarm and at that point I'm assuming the that encryption isn't helping to protect your privacy.
For other items where the both sides are not open access, I can definitely see where encryption is major privacy boast though - just not sure how it helps torrents.
Freedom
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Re: Encryption - Does it really work for torrent?
That depends on what your goal is. If you want to ensure that your traffic is encrypted so that nobody can every find out that you're downloaded kiddie porn, then you statement is correct. The police would certainly be able to join the swarm and find out what you're downloading if they had a mind to.
But for general use, all any network operator is going to see if encrypted traffic. None of the systems that filter or shape traffic based on content will be able to differentiate traffic that they "like" from traffic that they "dislike". It will all just look like encrypted hashes, which means that the filtering/shaping technology will not work.
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It'll (private security) happen eventually and it's not difficult for any one individual to accomplish. People need to realize that they do not need to be made the pawns of their government and of big business. Nobody owns me and nobody ever will. Those intelligent enough will always find a way to keep their individuality and privacy from those who would steal and exploit it.
Fight for what's yours and do not become complacent. Of this you are obligated.
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Encryption could be good for many things including Torrent
A number of monitoring companies hired by the mafia actually put files on P2P networks, then monitor who is downloading.
How this works is by checking the signature of those files.
If the signature of this file changes, i.e. automatically, or whenever a new copy is made available on P2P networks, then signature checking won't work anymore. The encryption could accomplish just that, change the signatures.
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Encryption, decryption, who cares...
Encrypted or not, an effective P2P torrent system MUST transmit and receive gigabytes worth of data. Encrypted or not, it has to move bytes. It's simply the nature of the beast.
So let ISPs charge for upstream traffic on a per kilo/mega/gigabyte basis, and the whole thing falls apart. More and more users leach instead of seed. And the number of seeds decrease as no one wants to pay the piper for the OTHER person's free copy of Iron Man.
Besides, the government can simply declare the use of encryption for illegitimate traffic illegal in and as of itself. Start broadcasting gigabytes of encrypted data to a myriad of sources (another P2P trait), and HS starts knocking on the door...
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Re: Encryption, decryption, who cares...
Just sign up to a usenet provider on a temporary/free plan:
https://signup.usenetserver.com/signup.asp?poplocation=1&noregcode=ok&unpagent=
https ://secure.giganews.com/signup/
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Re: Re: Encryption, decryption, who cares...
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Re: Encryption, decryption, who cares...
See also:
HTun: Providing IP Service Over an HTTP Proxy: htun.runslinux.net/docs/htun-paper.pdf
IP over DNS: http://thomer.com/howtos/nstx.html
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Re: Re: Encryption, decryption, who cares...
Sounds more PR than truth and still in the research phase. Besides, even if they are right, pretty risky throttling 10% of the traffic that it doesn't match to get the other 90%. Sometimes the 10% are folks with loud voices - just never know.
Just read an interesting article in MIT Rag that says that the Internet usage is growing by 50 to 100% per year. What's interesting about it is that accordingly to the article if it grows by 50% a year, no problem, ISPs/networks can handle it. However, if it grows at 100%, then that's is problem for ISPs/networks and ultimately us. I guess it's time for all of us to go green with the Internet now as well (argghhh!).
Freedom
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Encryption - it appears to be inevitable
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Port 443 - the one true port.
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do you realize
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The irony of users (like me) trying to encrypt their actions from the same media companies who encrypt their content so we don't steal it.
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Hmm...
Irony is a harsh mistress.
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"Give me the key...Now!"
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Re:
Good point, but at least they have to work to get the key and that raises the bar and puts the power back in the "little person's" hand. (Maybe power is an over statement, puts the ultimate decision back into the little person's hand - the consequence of not conforming may be high, but at least you have the decision of whether or not to comply.)
Freedom
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um, moot
Parties to hide traffic from: The other end and everyone in-between.
If you're engaging in the encrypted session with the sting op by downloading a file they've baited the trap with, the encryption is useless because they know you're downloading that file you weren't supposed to download.
If you think you're hiding your traffic from the middlemen to prevent throttling, reason for search & seizure, etc., that's already been poo-pood: Encrypted Traffic No Longer Safe From Throttling [Slashdot].
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