Low Barr: Don't give me that crap about security, just put the backdoors in the encryption, roars US Attorney General If the cops and Feds can't read people's encrypted messages, you will install backdoors for us, regardless of the security hit, US Attorney General William Barr has told the technology world. While speaking today in New York, Barr demanded eavesdropping mechanisms be added to consumer-level software and devices, mechanisms …
Wyden was doing just fine until he brought up partisan politics and saying Trump cannot be trusted. Riiiight because we could trust Obama, and we could trust Bush, and we could trust Clinton...
The bottom line is government cannot be trusted, regardless of who is in power.
"... brought up partisan politics and saying Trump cannot be trusted"
Uh, saying "Trump can't be trusted" isn't partisan politics, it's just the most obvious damn thing in the world.
You shouldn't have to go off on a tangent to apologize every time you state a fact. This kind of BS is why we're in this mess in the first place.
"Uh, saying "Trump can't be trusted" isn't partisan politics..."
Yes it is, because Trump says so, and that's all that matters. Remember, he's the one who said he could murder a man in the middle of Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and be praised for it...and he got elected. Frankly, I don't know if there will ever be a smooth transition of power after 2020.
Ahhh Trump will get his second term. The DNC will blow it and rig it like in 2016 and you get a Biden with Booker/Harris as VP that will just go on platitudes and slogans.
Trump will tear that apart. The media will root for Trump cos love him or loathe him, he has made their life so easy. If Biden gets in then 30% of the them are up for the chop within weeks.
The Reps and Dems are not allowed to offer a Govt. that works for the people. It only works for the top 10% and the Corporations. And the senior Dems like Pelosi and Schumer would rather lose to the Republicans than annoy their Corporate donors and lose those juicy big donations.
Remember when you are super wealthy, Politics is a fun hobby. Nothing more.
"the government is there to take care of us.
Can't disagree with her. Unfortunately, "take care of" can have a lot of different meanings, depending on the context.
"Sir, there's a problem. A large group of people is protesting our actions."
"What are you waiting for? Take care of them."
Usually it's a case of "we might trust the current government but how can we be sure of future governments?" We appear to have skipped the first step this time around, which is worrying.
There are really good reasons why governments with any sense will refuse to even consider certain actions.
Usually it's a case of "we might trust the current government but how can we be sure of future governments?" We appear to have skipped the first step this time around, which is worrying.
On the other hand, perhaps we would all be better served if people mistrusted the current government as a matter of course, even if they voted for them.
I feel governments are too often given the benefit of the doubt by those who voted for them, leading to the current situation on both sides of the pond, where the same oppressive legislation is continually being resurrected even when the colour of the government changes.
"I feel governments are too often given the benefit of the doubt by those who voted for them, leading to the current situation on both sides of the pond, where the same oppressive legislation is continually being resurrected even when the colour of the government changes."
We HAVE to, or things don't get done. It simply reaches the point of we have to trust SOMEONE at some point.
Sod yourself, too. You're still gonna die of thirst. Plus there's a chance they'll survive the blast and decide to retaliate against the entire village in ways that would make dehydration look pleasant.
Besides, they probably have the means to move on to terrorize the next village. The locals may not.
You sir, are a fool.
The general point is that you cannot trust this and all future governments with this kind of power. Not Obama, not Trump, and not the one that comes next or the one after that either. This senator has finally begun to understand that, it's a shame it's taken so long.
Once you hand a Government the ability to wiretap everyone at will, they or a successor will do so.
The only real difference is that Trump would definitely abuse it for personal gain, others would abuse it for different reasons. The victims are different but the outcome is similar.
The entire purpose of the US Constitution is to limit executive power, and this is why Barr's statement is attempting to feed the entire US Constitution and all its Amendments into a shredder.
"The entire purpose of the US Constitution is to limit executive power"
And the entire point of this exercise is that laws in the end are just ink on a page. ANYONE with sufficient power of some sort can simply ignore the laws, or as quoted by some people, "I reject your reality and substitute my own."
The Soviet Union had at least two written constitutions, the original and a new one sometime in the Eighties (I think). They were both excellent, and granted citizens many rights and safeguards. Problem is, nobody in power took the blindest bit of notice of them.
Why is the USA going down this path?
Trump cannot be trusted. Riiiight because we could trust Obama, and we could trust Bush, and we could trust Clinton
There are levels of 'trust' - You could trust Obama not to make the US look like an ass (he was presentable, and had a professional air, unlike Trump), Clinton, it depends, the husband you probably couldn't trust to be alone with a pretty secretary, Bush got over his problems with the bottle, but the whole 'God wanted me to be president' was a little worrying.
Barr can GO EFF himself as I can EASILY introduce a fully open source app that works on ANY HTML-5 web browser or ANY other programming language text and audio/video messaging app that uses Shor's Algorithm resistant encryption (i.e. anti-quantum computing encryption code) and there is NOTHING he can do about it as my code works everywhere and ANYWHERE! Needing NO digital signatures or OS-signing to work!
Fully encrypted, real-time text message, real-time voice and video using end-to-end peer-to-peer, peer-to-group, group-to-group and client/server operations are already supported! I can make it multi-country world-wide OPEN SOURCE ANY TIME !!!
AND... because I write my OWN cross-compilers I can make it work on ANY CPU and OS platform! I can even run a JIT (Just-In-Time compiler) within ANY web browser so my code s fully secure EVERYWHERE !!!!
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OMG -- this guy is UTTERLY BRAINLESS and CLUELESS when it comes to technology !!! I can bypass his directive ANY DAY on ANY operating system !!!
AND since I am probably one of teh BEST user interface programmers out there, my stuff is sooooo easy to use and modify to your hearts delight!
The user just uses and modifies what is open source and there is NOTHING Barr can do about it!
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Well, assuming all you've said is correct, you still wouldn't actually have anything secure. Either end could still be compromised. Your web host could be compromised. There are legit attacks that could easily neuter your whole big scheme and there's not a blessed thing you could do about it.
Technically YES that is true! ONLY a full custom Operating System running off of a custom BIOS on a custom motherboard with a custom CPU/GPU and a custom network card and custom TCP/UDP/IP stack using a custom web browser environment will be truly secure, but since our parent company IS the only one that has ALL of that type of technology designed and built in-house, I'm one of the few people in the entire world that get to stay TRULY SECURE and you plebes will have to make do with an HTML-5 or JAVAscript version of Lattice-based or Invariate encryption techniques within a real-time custom built text and audio/video communications app!
OH WELL !!! It will at least work up to a point!
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AND a custom-built network chip that STILL adheres to current standards, many of which are protected by PATENT? Sounds far-fetched to me because the holders of those patents are mostly-known. In fact, because standards patents are often held by competing firms, ensuring an in-house implementation can be trusted is practically impossible. Besides, how can you be sure one of your in-house people isn't moled?
TCP/IP/UDP stacks have long had no patents and since ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency aka predecessor to DARPA) was a government organization in the 1960's when "The Internet" was invented, there weren't any patents on the routing algorithms so public domain it was and is! Only miscellaneous technology was protected by U.S. DOD secrecy orders but NOT patents!
The Ethernet frame-based network communications technology was held by Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre) in the 1970's so those patents have LONG run out. ONLY large frame and certain routing algorithms specific to Cisco, Juniper, Broadcom, NTP and RIM are currently in effect for SOME internet technology! Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, NEC, Alcatel-Lucent (formerly Bell Labs and AT&T),Thales, Thomsen, etc have MANY WIRELESS spread-spectrum and OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multi-Plexing) (4G/5G) packet communications patents which you need for WIRELESS comms only! They DO NOT have general internet packet and network routing related patents!
Our company has already BOUGHT into multiple patent pools, so they already have access to much wireless and enterprise-level router IP!
The in-house people LIKELY aren't moles because of the polygraphs, extensive background checks, and mostly DEEEEEEEEP military backgrounds of the key engineering people!
These people KNOW how to keep secrets! And unlike me, they get paid literally a fortune to keep their mouths shut since they build and have access to technology so advanced and high-tech NOT EVEN the NSA, CIA, DARPA, NASA, ESA, CERN, LMCO, Boeing, Northrup, Raytheon, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Intel or even foreign giants such as Huaweii, BAE or Philips have the computing systems and aerospace technology we have!
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How many companies DO YOU KNOW have a 128-bits wide combined CPU/GPU/DSP running at 60 GHz on GaAs and a 128-bits wide Vector Array Processor running at 2 THz on GaAs ???
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Let me put it this way.... the "Summit" supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that is a 200 PetaFLOPS monster machine was recently "designated" as the world's fastest supercomputer.
Is it truly the world's fastest supercomputer as noted on the Top500 list?
NO! NO! and DOUBLE NO !!!!
IT HAS NOWHERE NEAR the ACTUAL world's fastest supercomputer performance, which is THE PARENT COMPANY'S SUPER located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada which runs at 119 ExaFLOPS SUSTAINED performance! It is 595 times FASTER than Summit AND it is a full 128-bits wide for Integers, Floating Point, Fixed Point and RGBA pixels and NOT a mere 64-bits wide like Summit is! It runs a Whole Brain Emulation neural net system which uses molecular and electrical physics simulation for emulating neural tissue, and I can tell you it works VERY VERY WELL !!!!!!!! It has human-level (and above!) learning and end-user interaction capabilities!
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When you have 119 ExaFLOPS, you can do quite a lot of things in the commercial world with that!
THAT is why it is "mostly" kept a big secret from the outside world. I'm disclosing it HERE cuz I know the "Corporate Owners" very well (I asked first!) and I do much unpaid computer-related "as-a-personal-favour-consulting-work" in exchange for me getting much access to high end video, computing and CNC-machining gear at off-hours/night-time for MY OWN VERY SPECIAL PERSONAL PROJECTS!
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Anyways, back to IP licenced from elsewhere! We examine ALL IP and change it to fit our needs and then tape-out/burn the customized chips IN-HOUSE using our GaAs, GaN, Silicon-on-Sapphire and Silicon-on-Diamond microcircuit substrate processes. We are probably the ONLY company in the world that has ALL four processes under ONE ROOF and ALL done in-house !!!
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Then NAME IT. A company like yours would be the Northrop Grumman of today: a frequent client of the government and therefore protected by local sovereignty because of their involvement in Black Projects.
PS. Any company with the computing ability to top the Utah Data Center (and perhaps including the secret quantum computer underneath it) would have the power to be sovereign unto themselves.
Well, assuming all you've said is correct, you still wouldn't actually have anything secure. Either end could still be compromised.
I think the point mr. shouty was making was that the biggest flaw in this plan is: "how do you get the terrorists to choose one of your compromised software products rather than an actually secure one produced in some actually free country?"
the way i see it this could be as secure as it gets. Encrypt a message , send via email , dropbox , ftp , 'web host' , whatever you want , it doesnr matter if those transmission media are compromised they dont have the key and cant decrypt it.
The recipient then uses the key top open message at his end. On a pc that is clean becasue , i dunno it auto rebuilds on the hour? is read only ? whatever.
The only way the 'ends' are compromised is if the Men in Black are standing behind the sender or reciever pointing a gun at their head , in which case all bets are off.
Honestly, I'd consider you a rank amateur if you had important messages to pass and did NOT already consider the medium to be insecure. Indeed by making this great pretence of impossible to break encryption you're basically pointing a BIG blinking neon arrow at yourself.
There are plenty of ways to pass a message in some unencrypted plain world-readable rubbish like in Facebook posts about your search for the best beer or the most sublime cheese. Don't imagine for one moment that "secret" messages were never sent in a place with high surveillance like the former East Germany. And keeping with the WW2 theme, the reliance on the encoding of the Enigma turned out to be a weakness in the end.
Any encryption that hasn't been proven to be flawed is NOT secure, it simply hasn't proven to be flawed... yet. Assume that, plan for that, and act accordingly.
riiiight.
So all encryption is insecure so plan for that . hmm ok .
So the only logical solution is not to send any messages?
or to stat blathering about beer on facebook?
Pesonally I'd rather take my chances with the AES256 encryption.
I've always assumed that those ridiculous prices one sees for books like used copies of Unix in a Nutshell on Amazon are a low-bandwidth encoding scheme.
Why else would anyone pay four thousand times the cost of a new copy?
So, disable wifi, bluetooth, speakers, microphone, camera, download the encrypted whatever, unplug the LAN and decrypt. then turn off the computer, destroy the HDD/SDD and rebuild. For some baddies that may be worthwhile and may be happening now. It doesn't have to be an expensive computer either, could be a small old cell phone or tablet that you'd then just burn in a bonfire. My apologies to the environment for putting that out there.
"... destroy the HDD/SDD and rebuild."
IIRC, wasn't there a big stink a few years back where SATA HHD's had malware rooted deep in firmware?
I've got a stash of IDE HDD's for my IBM PS/1 should I start looking to fire that up?
It does make me wonder how far back we would have to go to say, we were confident the hardware hadn't been tampered with.
Nah! That won't work either! I can hide malware in the Network Card BIOS, GPU card BIOS, motherboard BIOS, the Hard Drive Bios controllers and EVEN in baseband OS bioses on wireless comms that runn UNDERNEATH the operating system! I can output alpha channel overlays that humans CANNOT SEE as frame-based video-data flashes on a display system which can be read by external recording systems. OR I can embed NOISE that represent data but the human ear filters out into headphones or audio streams or embed as analog as cross-talk which can be read by external systems.
I can also electrically flicker various motherboard chips to emit RFI/EMI "noise" as an encrypted data stream which the computer case won't trap BUT can be read outside a building! I have a TON of techniques to use to bypass ANY type of building and case shielding to get any BIOS hack-related captured data to an external reader!
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you know real hackers stfu about it .......
just sayin ..."
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I'm NOT a hacker ... I am THEIR worst enemy! I can do this because I am VERY WELL VERSED in both HumInt and SigInt processes and the people that partake in those two subject areas. Unlike YOU, I have walked on those marble, textured metal and and concrete floors which allow me access to some of the most advanced technology and systems ever created and/or obtained!
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Since I am a private corporate entity, I can do certain things that many here cannot! And illustrating just how actually INSECURE your computer hardware and operating system software really is, is just ONE of those tasks I am more than ready to involve myself in.
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Ergo, since we KNOW how bad the situation is, WE WENT ALL BLACK BUDGET and designed, coded, manufactured and 3D-printed/CNC'ed ALL of our own gear and technology that NO-ONE ELSE ON EARTH HAS --- PERIOD !!!
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