Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 19 Aug 2013 @ 6:44am
what?
"the agency performs about 20 million such queries each month."
20... million... Wait. What?
Somehow this is supposed to make me feel better? This database is full of communication information of which >99% of is from perfectly innocent American citizens and foreigners who are absolutely no threat to the US. And yet that database is being queried 20 million times a month?
In what reality does this make even the tiniest bit of sense?
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 16 Aug 2013 @ 8:07pm
Mistake
Big mistake by the government. If they wanted this kept quiet, its a huge tactical mistake that will be an all out strategic mistake.
We argued on the last story whether him having to shut down his business gave him standing to challenge this in open court. Now there's no question - he's being threatened by the government with imprisonment.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 14 Aug 2013 @ 1:07pm
Re: Comments
I wish I had gotten a comment entered into the record calling this clown the 2-bit hack lawyer that he is.
Just in case you were serious, I don't think you'd have a case for infringement. First, he's entering this into a court record, which is common sense fair use and recently confirmed by another case just recently written about here. Also, there's no copyright notice anywhere that I've seen on TD, and I find it unlikely you've registered your comments with the correct government agency you would need to in order to sue him. But them, I'm not a lawyer. Maybe you could hire one on Craigslist to make some bizarre case that makes a judge get a migraine.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 13 Aug 2013 @ 1:24pm
Re: Re:
Actaully, realizing my post was late to the party, I want to change my reasoning. I still think you've got the right theory, but...
I'm going to go with Hanlon's Razor now. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Bennett is assuming malice against his 1-star review. You're assuming stupidity on the part of telco-astroturfing efforts. Therefore, I'm going with stupidity on the part of the telcos, who have been proven to engage in similar stupidity before.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 13 Aug 2013 @ 12:53pm
Re:
No. Lavabit is a small company. So is SilentCircle. You're right, once a company is big enough, a CEO who tried to shut the company down to protect customers would be ousted by the board or shareholders.
So if you want secure email or cloud services, and can't/don't want to run it yourself, the only answer is small companies that are willing to do a "corporate seppuku" instead of appeasing the NSA.
Privacy Seppuku. This turns the game into whac-a-mole for the NSA. Just like copyright organizations trying to take down file sharing sites, the NSA wouldn't be able to stop it. As soon as they approach a company to try to get wide access to data, the company dies. But it's reborn a short while later with a new name, new domain, but same services running from the same (open source) software, on the same hosting provider (or maybe a different one, since there's lots of hosting providers out there). What is the NSA going to do, arrest the owner? Then they can fight it openly in a real court.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 8 Aug 2013 @ 1:35pm
Re:
While possible, in actuallity it's not very likely. Because many of the major (Tier 1) backbones that are in the US are controlled by US companies, and those companies all peer with each other in many locations inside the US, it would take some seriously screwy routing for an email from the US to go elsewhere before coming back.
What is far more likely is that emails from other countries like Canada or other close neighbors will come into to the US before being sent back to their country of origin.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 8 Aug 2013 @ 7:29am
Here goes the dominos.
Now we're going to see the rage of the general public. That will get Senators and Representatives looking at this much deeper. Scooping up calls and emails to protect people from terrorists is one thing. Snooping on them about their taxes is something else entirely.
This also puts in perspective the stories back from April about the IRS having access to emails without warrants.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 6 Aug 2013 @ 7:15am
Tech details
That piece has no technical details of how this would work in reality. It sounds more like a wishlist from some clueless exec in make-believe land.
Sure, Comcast could see someone downloading something via a torrent with DPI gear. But there's no way to "push" a popup to someone's system. There needs to be some software on the system going and looking for it. I suppose Comcast could open a hole on the cable modem/routers they control, but that still leaves OS firewalls to breach.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 5 Aug 2013 @ 11:43am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Its all a diversion
Mark my words, this globalized free trade fiasco is going to end very badly, for US.
The problem isn't that we have free trade - it's that we don't. The "free trade" agreements are negotiated in secret with technical advisors (lobbyists) from the largest corporation only after their own interests. Instead of promoting free trade, they promote protectionist type policies.
In a (real) free market with (real) free trade, trade imbalances would naturally work themselves out, as the relative exchange rate between the two countries would shift.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 5 Aug 2013 @ 11:20am
Well, this story is the answer to the question posed weeks ago: "If this information is being used, why hasn't it shown up in the evidence used in court cases?"
And if it's happening with the DEA, what other agencies are doing the same thing? I feel like I'm going into tinfoil-hat land here, but it's almost as if the NY Times story was "leaked" by someone knowing that information like this was going to come out and trying to get the opposite out first.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 1:17pm
Re: Re: HTTPS everywhere
Do keep in mind that MITM could not be done on a mass scale. They could only do this with selected targets as it is computationally prohibitive on a large scale.
Yeah, they'd need a data center the size of a football field or two.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 6:47am
Re:
Barring the mythical and non-existant quantum computers or a serious breakthrough in factoring mind bogglingly large numbers, brute forcing a modern encryption scheme is not possible. What the NSA (or other people breaking encryption systems like DRM) rely on to break encryption schemes are flaws in how keys are managed or generated, attacks that depend on knowing what parts of the message already are, and other flaws that turn what is supposed to be a completely random encrypted message into something that is predictable instead of random.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 6:37am
Re: Re: Re: Why, it's getting so can't even trust Microsoft!
ootb is has admitted that the only reason he posts is to disrupt the discussion. Something that arguing over whether his comment should be hidden in every post achieves remarkably well. And yes, I'm now adding to the disruption.
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 30 Jul 2013 @ 4:06pm
Re:
Breaking terms of service is not criminal. And he, like anyone else on MIT's network, was authorized to view those articles.
And yeah, I'll cheer him on for doing what he did. Not for some absurd thing about 'sticking it to the man'. We'll never know what he really intended to do with all of the data, but something that resulted in a more open and free sharing of information would've fit what we know about him and I would fully support that.
We'll never know whether MIT telling the feds not to prosecute would've caused them to think twice. But it certainly would've been interesting for the case if both JSTOR and MIT were saying there was no harm done. Especially if the feds were trying to hang their case on the absurd notion that violating a private company's TOS is criminal. It would have been laughed out of court.
On the post: NSA Defenders Insist Their Lawbreaking Should Be Ignored Because They 'Didn't Mean It'
what?
20... million... Wait. What?
Somehow this is supposed to make me feel better? This database is full of communication information of which >99% of is from perfectly innocent American citizens and foreigners who are absolutely no threat to the US. And yet that database is being queried 20 million times a month?
In what reality does this make even the tiniest bit of sense?
On the post: Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service
Mistake
We argued on the last story whether him having to shut down his business gave him standing to challenge this in open court. Now there's no question - he's being threatened by the government with imprisonment.
On the post: Prenda Lawyer Would Like Future Documents Sealed Because Techdirt Commenters Said Mean Stuff About Him
Re:
(And how about setting the default to threaded instead of flat.)
On the post: Prenda Lawyer Would Like Future Documents Sealed Because Techdirt Commenters Said Mean Stuff About Him
Re: Comments
Just in case you were serious, I don't think you'd have a case for infringement. First, he's entering this into a court record, which is common sense fair use and recently confirmed by another case just recently written about here. Also, there's no copyright notice anywhere that I've seen on TD, and I find it unlikely you've registered your comments with the correct government agency you would need to in order to sue him. But them, I'm not a lawyer. Maybe you could hire one on Craigslist to make some bizarre case that makes a judge get a migraine.
On the post: Telco Astroturfing Or Elaborate Double-Reverse Sabotage Fakeout? You Decide
Re: Re:
I'm going to go with Hanlon's Razor now. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Bennett is assuming malice against his 1-star review. You're assuming stupidity on the part of telco-astroturfing efforts. Therefore, I'm going with stupidity on the part of the telcos, who have been proven to engage in similar stupidity before.
On the post: Telco Astroturfing Or Elaborate Double-Reverse Sabotage Fakeout? You Decide
'nuf said.
On the post: The Tech Industry Is Making A Big Mistake: It's Time To Suck It Up And Fight Back Hard Over NSA Surveillance
Re:
So if you want secure email or cloud services, and can't/don't want to run it yourself, the only answer is small companies that are willing to do a "corporate seppuku" instead of appeasing the NSA.
https://www.cryptocloud.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2954&p=3920%23p3920
Privacy Seppuku. This turns the game into whac-a-mole for the NSA. Just like copyright organizations trying to take down file sharing sites, the NSA wouldn't be able to stop it. As soon as they approach a company to try to get wide access to data, the company dies. But it's reborn a short while later with a new name, new domain, but same services running from the same (open source) software, on the same hosting provider (or maybe a different one, since there's lots of hosting providers out there). What is the NSA going to do, arrest the owner? Then they can fight it openly in a real court.
On the post: NY Times Reveals NSA Searches All Emails In & Out Of The US; Will It Offer Up Its Source For Prosecution?
Re:
What is far more likely is that emails from other countries like Canada or other close neighbors will come into to the US before being sent back to their country of origin.
On the post: IRS Also Secretly Got Intelligence Info And Was Told To Launder It
Now we're going to see the rage of the general public. That will get Senators and Representatives looking at this much deeper. Scooping up calls and emails to protect people from terrorists is one thing. Snooping on them about their taxes is something else entirely.
This also puts in perspective the stories back from April about the IRS having access to emails without warrants.
On the post: Comcast NBC Universal Already Moving Past Six Strikes; Trying New Malware Popups Urging Downloaders To Buy
Tech details
Sure, Comcast could see someone downloading something via a torrent with DPI gear. But there's no way to "push" a popup to someone's system. There needs to be some software on the system going and looking for it. I suppose Comcast could open a hole on the cable modem/routers they control, but that still leaves OS firewalls to breach.
On the post: Surprise: Obama's New US Trade Rep Overturns ITC, Stops Ban On Apple Products
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Its all a diversion
The problem isn't that we have free trade - it's that we don't. The "free trade" agreements are negotiated in secret with technical advisors (lobbyists) from the largest corporation only after their own interests. Instead of promoting free trade, they promote protectionist type policies.
In a (real) free market with (real) free trade, trade imbalances would naturally work themselves out, as the relative exchange rate between the two countries would shift.
On the post: DEA Not Only Gets Intelligence Data, But Then Is Instructed To Cover Up Where It Gets The Info
And if it's happening with the DEA, what other agencies are doing the same thing? I feel like I'm going into tinfoil-hat land here, but it's almost as if the NY Times story was "leaked" by someone knowing that information like this was going to come out and trying to get the opposite out first.
On the post: Congressional Oversight? Dianne Feinstein Says She's 'Not A High-Tech Techie' But Knows NSA Can't Abuse Surveillance
It's the OTHER definition of oversight.
On the post: Latest Leak Shows NSA Can Collect Nearly Any Internet Activity Worldwide Without Prior Authorization
Re: Re: HTTPS everywhere
Yeah, they'd need a data center the size of a football field or two.
Like the one that's being built by the NSA... oh.
On the post: Manning Faces Lifetime In Jail, While The Wrongdoers He Exposed Are Free
Re: Re: Pardon
On the post: Senators Wyden And Udall: US Gov't Still Not Being Honest About NSA Surveillance
Re: Re:
On the post: Yes, The NSA Has Always Hated Encryption
Re:
On the post: Yes, The NSA Has Always Hated Encryption
Re: Re: Re: Why, it's getting so can't even trust Microsoft!
On the post: Cable News Networks 'Grant' Manning Verdict A Whole Five Minutes Of Coverage
Re:
On the post: MIT Defends Its 'Neutral' Stance On Aaron Swartz As 'Reasonable' Even As It Failed To Understand Importance Of The Case
Re:
And yeah, I'll cheer him on for doing what he did. Not for some absurd thing about 'sticking it to the man'. We'll never know what he really intended to do with all of the data, but something that resulted in a more open and free sharing of information would've fit what we know about him and I would fully support that.
We'll never know whether MIT telling the feds not to prosecute would've caused them to think twice. But it certainly would've been interesting for the case if both JSTOR and MIT were saying there was no harm done. Especially if the feds were trying to hang their case on the absurd notion that violating a private company's TOS is criminal. It would have been laughed out of court.
Next >>