Domestic Spying Program Could Aid Terrorists, Experts Say
Domestic Wiretapping Could Pose ‘An Awesome Risk’ to National Security
Although the Bush administration calls it a vital weapon against terrorism, its domestic wiretapping effort could become a devastating tool for terrorists if hacked or penetrated from inside, according to a new article by a group of America’s top computer security experts.The administration has said little about the program except to defend it against charges it amounts to illegal spying on U.S. citizens. When news of the program broke in 2006, then-White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the program a “limited” effort “targeted at al Qaeda communications coming into or going out of the United States.”
But documents submitted in an ongoing court case indicate the program involves data centers at major telecommunications hubs that siphon off and analyze billions of bytes of Americans’ emails, phone calls and other data.
By diverting the flow of so much domestic data into a few massive pools, the administration may have “[built] for its opponents something that would be too expensive for them to build for themselves,” say the authors: “a system that lets them see the U.S.’s intelligence interests…[and] that might be turned” to exploit conversations and information useful for plotting an attack on the United States.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence referred a request for comment on the article to the interagency National Counterterrorism Center, which directed calls to the National Security Agency, which reportedly runs the program. The NSA declined to comment for this story.The White House referred calls to the NSA.
The article, slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal IEEE Security & Privacy, was written by six experts from Sun Microsystems, Columbia University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and California-based research giant SRI International.
The data centers for the classified program are reportedly housed in “secure” rooms within telecommunications hubs around the country, and connect to operations buried within the NSA’s highly classified facilities. But judging by past breaches, the authors conclude this system could be compromised also from within or outside.
In 2004, hackers cracked a wiretapping function on a Greek national cell phone network. For 10 months, they intercepted conversations by the country’s prime minister and its ministers of defense, foreign affairs and justice, and roughly 100 other officials and parliament members, the authors note. The hackers were never caught.
“Although the NSA has extensive experience in building surveillance systems, that does not mean things cannot go wrong,” the authors state. “When you build a system to spy on yourself, you entail an awesome risk.”
Just as dangerous is the possibility that an insider could access the system undetected, according to the experts. Poorly-designed surveillance technology used by the FBI relies on a “primitive” system to track people who use the operation to wiretap phone conversations, the authors say, creating what they call a “real risk” of an insider attack.
They note that convicted spy Robert Hanssen, one of the most destructive moles in the bureau’s history, exploited similar weaknesses to steal information and follow the investigation into himself on FBI computers without leaving a trail.
Last August, a federal judge ruled the program was unconstitutional. The administration is appealing the decision. The Senate is currently considering a White House-backed effort to retroactively immunize telecommunications companies which have participated in the program from civil suits, several of which have been filed since the program came to light. The legislation, the authors say, would allow the program to continue without ensuring proper oversight, accountability and security, creating “a long-term risk.”
Copyright © 2008 ABC News
Duh. If I know you are going to spy on me, I’ll use other techniques to pass information. E,g, I could encode all my email with a strong open-source encryption code (not the stuff you buy - the Govt has the keys to that).
Crime mitigation programs are almost useless at capturing the determined, intelligent perpetrator. Such programs are good only at catching the part-time bad guy.
It’s amazing the apparant naïveté of the press in not more deeply questioning the true motives of the Bush government when it seeks such broad powers. No one except the “fringe” wants to recognize that the system is designed for “abuse” (i.e. dealing with domestic political enemies).
The same goes for the Iraq war. Although there has been some press about the lies and distortions that led to the war, few are asking the question, “Why would they lie? Why would they so desperately want to attack Iraq and form a permanent presence there?”.
These questions lead into dark places for which it would better to sober up about than maintain a policy of blissful denial.
Dum N Dumr.
Terrorists know that all electronic systems are tapped.
That is why they don’t use them for serious business.
They will use them for decoy information and they also are good at hacking any system.
Any network is easily hacked.
Actually if you get on the internet with dialup or DSL you have a new IP for each log on so your e-mail is more secure than any fancy network including the FBI’s.
This article is right on!
One can’t avoid being wire-tapped but, if one really did not want the government to know what you are up to before it is too late, the suggestion would be to hold the conversation in a language other than English. Tapped conversations not in English are put aside to be translated into English by a translator - something that could take days, weeks or months (by the time it may be too late to do something about the information).
How long do you think it would take the government to translate a conversation which took place in Kling-on?
Note of this spying on people is new. What is new is the perceived lack of a need for justification for this spying and the increase use of private agencies for the purposes of keeping surveillance.
Some cell phones have this program where they keep track of key phrases in your conversations with others so as to gear advertising to your conversations. If you were talking about how so-an-so’s boyfriend is acting like such a baby, the soldier charged with possession of inappropriate materials, and some actors DUI charge - now would they send you ads for diapers, er - illegal pornography, and Bud wiser?
Sure, terrorists could figure out ways of eavesdropping on conversations (more so if the technology is commercially available) - but so can political parties bug each other’s meetings so as to know their strategy before they use it so they can counter it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The truth is that the Government has been spying on us from the beginning. They spied on Tommy Douglas, they spied on Trudeau and, they spied on David Lewis so much that when Avi Lewis (Naomi Klein’s husband) decided to research his ancestry, he had boxes and boxes of RCMP surveillance to look through to help with the search:
The surveillance file on David Lewis spans over five decades from his student days in 1931 until several years after his death when the file was finally closed. At almost a thousand pages, the file includes transcripts of his speeches, newspaper articles, intercepted telegrams, and RCMP official memos speculating about David’s political and
social associations. Portions of the file are still censored as they pose risks to national security. Reading through the file, Avi notes that the RCMP was most concerned with attempting to establish any communist affiliations. Yet, as a politician and activist, David Lewis was known to be vehemently anti-communist. The RCMP focuses on David’s Eastern European background and in establishing his original family name. The file seems to contain nothing to justify fifty years of spying.
http://www.cbc.ca/whodoyouthinkyouare/stories/ext_avi.php
“By diverting the flow of so much domestic data into a few massive pools…..the administration may have built…..a system that might be turned to exploit conversations and information…..”
How true, how true.
A couple of the pending lawsuits were based upon whistleblowers’ observations that their telecom employers were assisting the National Security Agency by physically installing giant “splitters” for NSA’s exclusive use at the big telecommunication companies’ hubs in California and in the DC area.
Essentially, NSA would simply siphon off and store mirror image data of ALL the electronic trafficking passing through the hub in massive basins or reservoirs. Specific transmissions (or conversations) could then be retrieved later from the billions and billions of bytes of duplicated data held in storage for careful analysis by the NSA’s staff.
It’s really not much different - the NSA system’s advocates would tell you - than a giant surveillance camera, slowly recording everything and everybody coming in and out of the neighborhood convenience store, 24/7, onto an reel of videotape so enormous that it needs to be replaced with a new reel just once a year, every New Years eve.
Nobody’s scrutinized at all you see, unless a stick up or shoplifting or other noteworthy event occurs within the camera’s range. Then and only then (we promise!) only appropriate officials with the appropriate clearance will have access to look at and/or duplicate only the appropriate segment of the tape, leaving the rest undisturbed.
Nobody’s rights intruded upon at all you see, unless your comings and goings at 7-11 involve some sort of activity you would prefer to hide…..
Yes, I suppose the six experts’ report mentioned in Justin Rood’s article may be correct: if stick up men or shoplifters somehow got access to the store’s master surveillance tape and studied it carefully, it might indeed facilitate planning a future crime. And where terrorism (like the KGB threat of the Robert Hanssen era) is concerned, you never can be too cautious.
But don’t let this gloss over the central evil at issue in the NSA domestic surveillance litigation and scandal.
Using your telephone, e-mail, or FAX is not at all analogous to walking in and out of the convenience store in the first place. NSA and the cooperating telecoms got caught red handed creating the data base (installing the videocamera) where no recording for data storage purposes had previously existed at all. And this was happening seven months BEFORE the 9/11 attacks…..
In the nomenclature of the Fourth Amendment, usually government agencies get a warrant first, then search, and then make their seizure.
Under the NSA’s technology rich system, first everything literally gets seized contemporaneously, all at once. Agents can then search the data later, at their leisure. And only bother to get a warrant at the end of the process, once they’re fairly sure what they will find.
Immunity for the clowns who stand the Fourth Amendment on its head? No way.
Bill from Saginaw
Jim Glover wrote: Actually if you get on the internet with dialup or DSL you have a new IP for each log on so your e-mail is more secure than any fancy network including the FBI’s.
I am sorry, that is totally incorrect. The ISP’s know EXACTLY which connections are handed a DHCP lease (ie, new IP address). Cable or ethernet connections also use DHCP. And as we have seen, the telecons are all too ready to hand this information over to the Govt.
However, you can double- or even triple-blind your IP by going through at least 2 anonymous and TRUSTED proxy servers.
Another way to protect yourself is to only use stolen laptops in areas of free wi-fi. But don’t over-use the same network, and work in different cities.
“How long do you think it would take the government to translate a conversation which took place in Kling-on?”
Bwahahahaaa.. brilliant!
I ,for one, am not convinced there is much of a terrorist threat at all. There have been no real plots discovered, not a single terrorist has been produced and there have been no attempts in 7 years. It is all an illusion meant to help increase control over the population, nothing more.
Right on, Lizard!!
As a computer professional of nearly 37 years, I can say that NO system is secure from a professional hacker or intruder. Anyone that says otherwise does not understand computing.
Security software and systems keep out the non-professionals if you configure them properly, but you cannot keep out a motivated professional hacker from getting to your information. It is not possible.
So, the statement that this new spying and gathering of information on US citizens is a possible security breach waiting to happen is a major understatement. The questions is not if, but when.
The insecure nature and complete illegality of this entire domestic surveillance program should tell us one and all, forever, the intelligence and competence of those inhabiting Washington, DC. The fact that the Democrats have done nothing about this shows they are in cahoots with the Republicans. Any questions???
If the real goal is to thwart terrorists, one has to wonder how much time and money is wasted on dead ends. If you throw too wide of a net to gather information, you can’t process all the information you gather. The question is not how long it will take you, because there is so much new information always coming in that some of it can never be processed. Quite frankly, the methods described in this article are much more efficient at gathering information on all of us than on gathering information on terrorists.
well, yeah…
remember ted “series of toobs” stevens?
just like every other bad idea outta that corrupt administration… doomed to fail.
…and this is supposed to surprise those of us that are paying attention how?
The danger is Not the Terrorists.
Not the Hackers.
The Danger is George W. Bush and his band of Merry NeoCons.
This is just a much more ambitious version of Watergate.
Why else has Congress rolled over for every single Bush assault on the Constitution over his entire presidency?
He’s got their every conversation with their Mistresses, Gay boyfriends, Bookies and Lobbyist Bribe passers on CD.
Domestic Spying Program Could Aid Terrorists?
Who do you think has usurped control of this country?
All anyone would need to do is include the Whitehouse in the address and your e-mail would automatically be “lost.”
Spying has, indeed, been a long time occupation of the U.S. government. And has always been about political repression that has nothing to do with security, just as the war in Iraq has nothing to do with “democracy”. The point of absurdity was when the FBI monitered Heller Keller for years upon years. Helen Keller I say again. They tapped her phone although they were baffled as to how to tap the woman who could not speak, hear or see, but they tried anyway. Being baffled by something does not mean the FBI gives up; they were sure she was a spy for peace. But imagine the absurdity of it all. As for the NSA, if you recall the book, of a few years ago, of the super kid who eluded everyone for years while he was hacking and saw a press conference one day where the director of NAS said his computers could not be hacked; the next morning he had a message they had been. This kid, when he was 12, could break into phone switching stations, and it was this way that later helped him elude capture.This was the same director whose son, a Cornell student, was later convicted of hacking. There is a principle that if a computer program can be written, it can also be broken. I think it is a Polish name for the principle. Anyone know it?
With email, if you don’t want it read by someone other than the recipient, don’t type it & don’t send it. You could have a keystroke logger on your computer and never know it. Even without monitoring software, the electronic emmissions from your keyboard and monitor can be read if the proper equipment is nearby. Every encryption program is secure until someone breaks it, and if the government breaks it, you can be sure they’re not going to advertise.
There is no absolutely safe email, no matter what you do.
The terrorists have been here since January 2001 and they are hiding in Washington DC in the Whitehouse.
If Osama Bin Laden really wanted to coordinate a strike at the USA he could. Bush keeps saying that we are vulnerable and if that was so the borders would be secure and most Arabs in this country would be in prison camps just as the Japanese were in WWII. It is a ploy to take away our liberty`s and slowly become a police state.
Big Brother is here to stay.
VAUDREE
’sure, terrorists could figure out ways of eavesdropping on conversations’
i can’t for the life of me imagine why they would want to do that….. they must have more pressing agendas……………
Ditto what BigJim said!
It is a ploy to take away our liberty`s and slowly become a police state.
——-
http://www.vcao.net
The hackers don’t have to be “terrorists”. It could be organized crime. To be able to wiretap anyone (say a bank) has got to be worth big money. Since people under investigation tend to ‘accidently’ delete emails and other records, I suspect they haven’t built much in the way of accountability into their wiretapping. The quickest log to delete is the one that was never created. No proof of misuse. No proof of legitimate use either. Harder to prosecute and harder to determine if the system was compromised.
The wiretapping staff know they are operating outside the law but do it, no doubt, for the ‘greater good’. What might they do to further the ‘greater good’ on their own? Change someone’s Rx? Block a 911 call? Redirect child porn to someone’s email account? I have to wonder whether the wiretapping ability can be used to tamper with service. With no oversight, there is no way to know.
ctrl-z wrote: There is no absolutely safe email, no matter what you do.
Agreed. From what I understand, the few machines that the NSA have for this task are seriously overwhelmed, most likely with trivial emails. Emails from high-value targets do get priority. The key to delivering an attack is not to completely mask the source or the intentions, but to delay discovery until after the attack has taken place.
I would expect if any out-to-do-serious-damage types wanted to use e-mail, they would just put it in some typical spam and send it to 12 million people. Only the ones who knew what it meant would know what to do. The rest would not. But finding the intended recipient/s might be something of a problem as would understanding what it meant, to that intended recipient, as the content could be copied from other spam. The keyword might be in the subject line, the content, both verbal or images, or in the faux sender address. What a colossal waste of time and money, that is if catching the bad guys were the true intent.
If the author thought of this it has probably already been done.
The other point is the absurd waste of resources tracking my 80 year old mothers calls to her cousin Al Kyder.
Finally, all the people monitored rights are violated because there are no warrants and there is no probable cause as a basis for any warrant, so unless they have a moron for a lawyer all evidence found can’t be used in court. Of course they don’t plan to go to court, hence the suspension of habeas corpus.
On the bright side, can you imagine how many porn searches they have intercepted!
I doubt the cave-dwelling neanderthals of al Qaeda would be able to organize the concerted effort needed to break into and make effective use of the information. Actually, that’s an unfair characterization of terror networks, but in order to survive they have to employ a decentralized cadre system which leaves them by nature insufficiently coordinated. The greater danger lies in larger state actors like Russia or China who have been named by the PNAC signatories as long term targets. Even Europe and India might see the benefit of exploiting America’s fetish for spying on itself. In the long run it might not even be the information that it gathers which proves to be America’s undoing. That information could prove too much to analyze. Instead, foreign intelligence agencies would examine how that intelligence is analyzed by the American agencies in order to see where American intelligence perceives its own weaknesses. Also, just looking at the responses in the thread shows another reason this is a doomed policy. Americans themselves will try to subvert it.
To put it simply this is a doomed policy because it makes America more vulnerable to attack and Americans less trusting of their government.
Vaudree - ’sure, terrorists could figure out ways of eavesdropping on conversations’
coco - i can’t for the life of me imagine why they would want to do that….. they must have more pressing agendas
Everyone has been spying on everyone since they’ve had the technology - though the terrorists would prefer to spy on our government than on anyone who doesn’t have security clearance. I am more concerned both with the lack of a need for a warrant and the privatization of spying. It is one thing for the FBI to be taping your conversations and quite another when Wal-Mart does it.
There are tapes in existence of Nixon swearing profoundly - what purpose do they serve other than our amusement!
You know those dangerous terrorists that they keep telling you about? The two who wore explosives and walked into a crowd of people in Iraq today were both girls with downs syndrome. AQ had so little trust in the girls that they were blown up by remote control.
You know that downs syndrome kid on the bus beside you talking about how happy he is to have a job and how friendly his new employer is? He could be a suicide bomber!
So while they are racial profiling Muslims and Mexicans with beards, maybe they will be detaining and strip searching Downs syndrome children as well.
RE: - The other point is the absurd waste of resources tracking my 80 year old mothers calls to her cousin Al Kyder.
Depends if they are monitoring Al’s phone calls. If so, they will probably be monitoring the calls of everyone who has ever called him. Did your mother ever attend a protest when she was 18? Did she ever have a friend who attended a protest?
RE: - If the author thought of this it has probably already been done.
Of course!
Have you heard of Farming? Crooks hack into your computer and when you think you are going to your bank account to do online business, you go, instead, to a complete replica of your bank account. When you put the information you usually do in there, the crooks have a copy of it. They also have the program set up so that doing the transaction in the fake bank page does it in the real bank page to make it look real (your real balance comes up). Once they have that information, they are you on line. Whatever you can do on line, they can do pretending to be you.
There is also a version of paypal which is actually paypa1 (1 instead of l) - you go there and your (word for twisted nail).
RE: - Redirect child porn to someone’s email account?
Possessing child porn in Canada makes one guilty of a hate crime. You can go to jail for that!
That would spell the end of any political career!
January 20, 2009- The beginning of recovery. Undoing what has been built into the systems: complex electronic spying centers, computer voting systems designed for hacking, Rapture-bent personnel planted in many key agencies and departments, Federalist Society judges who hold first loyalty to God and the RNC (the same thing), and millions of Americans who fervently believe that the Constitution does not require separation of religions and state and that there was never any such thing as religious tolerance no matter what the law or our history says. Alberto Gonzales, as the Attorney General, testified before Congress that the Constitution contains no requirement for habeas corpus. How many Federalist Society lawyers believe that? The president will have a nightmare making us honest again. We will all need to work mightily to heal our nation. The usually smooth transition from one administration to the next will not take place. The fabric of our government has been damaged too badly for that.
Secrecy - it’s something the US government likes. Therefore it’s something very easily abused. So it’s very likely not a good idea. So it’s something not likely to benefit the people. If the people need secrecy to protect themselves, they are really not protecting themselves per se but rather something else. For example, the people might form a militia to protect themselves from the government, and want militia talk to be secret. So the secrecy is not for the people, but for the militia. The militia is itself problematic because if/when it assumes power, it also assumes corruption. New boss same as old boss. The alternative approach to the militia is training for individuals to act in concert without an official channel of communication/coordiation. Notice how reliance on secrecy is avoided and general infiltration/sabotage is also avoided. This is how guerilla wars are fought and won. Except we don’t need violence. We simply avoid cooperating with the “authorities” and eventually we develop self-governance. See the various non-violent change resources. None involve secrecy. We want the society to be built on open government, open industrial info, open information in general.
VAUDREE
actually when i posted that comment, i was doing a ‘kem patrick’………
and isn’t it ‘fishing’ not farming? either way, i’d rather be f…ed than screwed……………..
Either way, you gave me an excuse to make a few points.
We are both wrong. Looked it up:
PHISHING
is a technique in which criminals try to trick people into disclosing sensitive information, such as online banking names and passwords, and is often conducted through e-mails that direct people to a bogus website.
PHARMING
is an attack in which malicious individuals try to redirect internet traffic from a legitimate website to a false one. This is sometimes done to collect a person’s login or password information.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/privacy/cybercrime.html
VAUDREE
thanks for the clarification and the link…….however, it’s still all ‘gobbledegook’ to me and i’ll never do any banking on-line……..and believe that neither the fbi or walmart would gather any useful information listening to my phone conversations………..(i write letters!!! ha, that got them……….)
It appears that the White House THINKS the NSA is coordinating the domestic spying effort, but is not absolutely sure. What does that tell you?
I’d also like to know about the NSA’s record on intelligence gathering. Did they anticipate, for example, 9/11? The implosion of the USSR? The absence of WMDs in Iraq? The conflict between Shia and Sunni?
The terrorist’s are the ones running this place. They haven’t been able to find any terrorist’s other than the ones they create with financing and entrapment. They did 9/11.
This search for terrorists is just a canard, used to give them the power to spy on us so they know how much we know about them and if we are going to do anything about it.
We don’t need a government like this, we would be better off without one. It’s been this way longer than most people think. It’s just they have got very brazen about it lately.
If we ever do get a decent president we should get a totally new security team for him and leave him in a bunker somewhere he can’t be murdered.
I imagine Georgie gets an ear full when I call my sister! We both detest Bush in all is ignorant glory. So that is usually one of the main topic’s of conversation when I call her long distance. I don’t imagine any terrorist is stupid enough to use conventional method’s to pass information. So where is the point in taping my phone. I personally think it’s a ‘power trip’ for George! He constantly has to prove how much a man he is to himself! He set out to prove he could break every law in the country and get away with it. He gets his jollies daily by playing Chief Thief! Knowing him his program probably is helping terrorism. I think that’s why terrorist’s have never hit us again. They don’t have to! George is doing a bang up job of destroying us! All they have to do is set back and watch him do it!
“When you build a system to spy on yourself, you entail an awesome risk.”
Like the risk of having to conclude that “impeachment is off the table”?
Or, that the currently proposed “legislation would allow the program to continue without ensuring proper oversight, accountability and security”; possibly because the majority of our congressional leaders have discovered their “halos” are missing from the NSA data base.
Coco, my interpretation of it: being computer illiterate rule! Think of it, all those computer savey people who bank on line are going to get dinged eventually.
BTW - how many of you use edit/find to get down to your last previous post and read from there?
RE: - The absence of WMDs in Iraq?
They knew. Ok, from what you know there is no WMD. The government says that they know of information that there are WMD but the information is too sensitive to share, so you doubt what you know. It was only after Cheney kept sending the information back for revision and using phrases that the CIA knew was wrong that some, like Wilson came out:
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/dickcheney/vice.html
RE: - This search for terrorists is just a canard, used to give them the power to spy on us
I accept that. One thing being debated when the government was trying to implement bill C-36 (a version of the Patriot Act that the US was pressuring all its allies to adopt) was the definition of terrorists. One concern at the time was that it was so vague that it might include peaceful protesters. The government assured the opposition that this was not the case. The NDP voted against it any way.
I wonder if these serial murderers who prey on prostitutes could be construed as terrorists. They definitely should be.
RE: - I imagine Georgie gets an ear full when I call my sister! We both detest Bush in all is ignorant glory. So that is usually one of the main topic’s of conversation when I call her long distance.
Actually, that is probably enough to make you a terrorist threat - you hate the president.
WTF,
I only said more secure with dialup, not totally. Nothing is totally secure. Networks and wifi are open to sniffers on the wires and in the air.
I do not worry about the government tapping my stuff… they want us to worry, but if you want to go to all the trouble you propose, go ahead.
The more they tap everyone the more useless it is to catching any criminals… it is like a denial of service attack on their own limited resources just to read what the have all backed up and if it is in a foreign language, imagine how long it would take to have translators get to it. If they can’t stop spam, like one poster said, spam to millions would be a great cover for a serious terrorist plot, but terrorists don’t trust the security of emails and phones anyway.
But thanks for the advise, I am just not that scared to go through all the trouble.
This is all just another way to terrorize us all and make money while pretending to make us secure.
We will not have to worry about another serious terrorist attack in the US until our troops come home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Why would the terrorists attack us now? They have us where they want us - near them, where they can reach us. All along, the terrorists have wanted to kill Americans, but couldn’t reach them. They did a dirty deed and, knowing what a jerk-off we had for a president, they sat and waited for us to send Americans to them to be killed. They saved billions of dollars on transportation and had all that cash to use for weapons and recruiting. Even if the soldiers all return in six months, it won’t matter because whichever dumb-ass we put in the White House will send more Americans to be killed at the next, inevitable, terrorist “attack”.
Impeach this regime? Hell, arrest them all for treason. By sending Americans to be killed by terrorists, they were aiding and abetting the enemy.
Right on Peter!
Just for strategy, General Custer had a better plan.
RE: All along, the terrorists have wanted to kill Americans
Why?
The biggest terrorist attack involving Canada was Air India - which happened in 1985 and which we are still talking about and having inquiries into because CSIS and the RCMP screwed up royally.
CSIS=CIA
RCMP=FBI
Backgrounder:
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-1018/disasters_tragedies/air_india_investigation/
You would think that the terrorists would be more likely to attack Canada than the US for “hating our freedoms” - we have gay marriage. Not only that, but the founder of the gay rights movement in Iran lives in Canada and so does the founder of a gay rights group for devout Muslims. Wouldn’t that be more of a threat than the freedom of being able to carry a gun in one pocket and a taser in the other?
What makes one hate America?
Hey, Peter, good point. But it goes even deeper. Our malevolent government has also seen fit to bankrupt the entire country. What a coup for bin Laudin! Bush might as well be working for al Kida. I’m sure his bonus is in the mail.
As for the illegal spying thing, I’m going with Jim Glovers approach. I’m too techno challenged to deal with trying to avoid it anyway. I just refuse to live in fear. The way things are going now, this fascist government is going to take anyone they want with or without any evidence.
Also, I don’t think all this illegal spying stuff is directed at us run of the mill folks or terrorists. It’s directed at anybody with any power - like congress (particularly Repugs) and corporate moguls. Ever wonder why Repugs vote in lock step with the Prez? Ever wonder why the Dimwits always buckle? Keep in mind the first thing the Schrub did on his first day of office - locked up daddy’s records. Hummmmmm. Then he started the wirtapping thing soon thereafter. Hummmmm…..Funny how all this started long before 9/11…..
VAUDREE
‘BTW how many of you use edit/find’ etc. what are you talking about? i haven’t seen anything like this……how does it work?
‘what makes one hate America?’…..it’s not ONE; it’s MILLIONS………
coco: I can’t find an “edit/find” function either.
Oh, I found it! At least on my screen. Up in the upper right hand corner is an magnifying glass with a down arrow next to it. Pull down the arrow and click on “Find on the page”. A box will pop up where you can type in what you want to find. Then click on “next”. It’s kinda cool in a way.
REBEL FARMER
right i got it. but when i typed in ‘bush’s brain’ nothing happened.
btw i think he should be re-named: bin laundering………….
The NSA and other security related organizations are already infiltrated. You can count your money buy it. By Israel and many other foreign nationals, and by various political factions withing the US of I who have various agendas. Such data ‘mining’, as it is called, is already a pretty big business, and is worth heaps of money for whoever can amass various sorts of information, even down to your ethnic and economic details and what sorts of products you would tend to buy. Its a billion dollar business goldmine, as well as a tool for foreign agencies to keep track of the US. The temptation to sell, lose, or leak various databases of information for money, power, revenge, ideals or plain embarrassment is beyond the range of resistance to temptation for the average human being. The cost is astronomical. Just see your phone bill per call cost of the future.
call $1.00
basic surveillance, analysis and storage $2.00
Security organizations to monitor the telephone company $4.00
Secrets leaked to third parties $8.00
Blackmail and other political leverage $16.00
It will make a mint for some people.
With such expensive communications, people will have to resort to word of mouth.
Great article Justin. Now for my twist on domestic spying. I’m I to assume the Patriot Act is in place to protect me from terrorist. I think not. Here’s one example….we’ve all seen the videos and photos of the Taliban soldiers carrying walkie talkies, not Blackberries, laptops, PDA’s w/WiFi etc. Cell phones, computers and the like leave a digital fingerprint which can easley be monitored and stored…forever. The walkie talkies in the photos are analog [not digital]am/fm/ssb military surplus radios that can be purchased anywhere such as flea markets, yard sales, even dumps [do ebay search for military radios or transcievers-not just walkie talkies]. Terrorist are not stupid, an analog transceiver is capable countless frequencies and modes. Why then would they ever consider going online or risk being triangulated on a cell phone knowing that they are being tracked.
So, why the Patriot Act? It’s costing us a fortune to implement, and the possibility of all this private information [medical, banking, legal, etc.] being hacked by terrorist or worse corporations is very real [we’ve all heard about missing laptops with important client info].
Of all the remaining candidates who do you trust to do something about domestic spying? Check their Patriot Act voting records [votesmart.org] I think you will be disappointed…
Seven years of hell just because of four unlocked doors.
coco - I have a spell check that said that there was no “future” once - some program for the old Commodore 64.
Even when you are feeling too dizzy to read all through something to find something, this little trick helps you find it.
My son knew how to change the computer colour setting for his games when he was three. I still don’t know how to do that!
RE: - ‘what makes one hate America?’…..it’s not ONE; it’s MILLIONS…
Coming here helps one realize that not all Americans think like Bush and that many dislike him. Ergo, coming here helps the rest of us like Americans.
I did notice that you evaded the question in your answer.
RE: - Patriot Act
Not only did the US implement the Patriot Act, but they also pressured other countries into adopting similar measures.
Parliament was not in session on September 11, 2001 - not until September 17, 2001 (click on calendar at bottom). I wonder how many times the word terror would come up if you used your edit/find function:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/housechamberbusiness/chambersittings.aspx?Key=2001&View=H&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=37&Ses=1
Did you know that before 2001, September 11 was the International Day of Peace?
VAUDREE
well, if the spell check said there’s no ‘future’ it must be right…..
as for evading the question: i was really making fun of your use of the english language but emphasising the numbers at the same time. however, if you really want to know what makes ‘one’/'millions’ hate america, i can oblige. this might take some time ……………………
vaudree wrote: Did you know that before 2001, September 11 was the International Day of Peace?
This is a hard one to research, but here is a UN press release on Sept 10 2001.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/sgsm7945.doc.htm
The US had deigned an International Day of Peace in 1981, but had never selected a day until Sept 10 2001.
Later in 2001, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a new resolution 55/282 declaring 21 September of each year as the International Day of Peace.
WTF - I knew about it because Gilles Duceppe (leader of the Bloc) mentioned it on September 17 in the House of Commons during Question Period (which started off with one member from each party giving a long speech about 9-11) before getting into Question Period for real.
The Bloc only runs candidates in Quebec. Quebec has a long history of being anti-war - they didn’t even want to participate in WWII. Thus, they like to have tidbits of peace to throw around at the war mongers in the Liberals and Conservatives (then called Canadian Alliance or CRCAP).
In Canada they divide up the work so an MP in each party is keeping track of what goes on in the UN.
MP=Congressperson
I didn’t know that they changed it or that the new date is September 21? Good research!
Your link is a bit pissy (ie, stubborn, irritable) so if anyone tried it and got an error tell them to just retry it and it will go through.
coco - I know, but you still evaded the question.
Those in Question Period tend to be equally amusing (sometimes) when they do the same thing.
I got rid of an old dictionary but had made a list of normal words that this spell check did not recognize in its front pages. That is the only funny one I can remember.
My use of the English language is really messed up as of late. Earlier in a post I accidentally substituted “if” for “is.” I almost substituted “Animal House” for “Animal Farm” in a conversation earlier. I think I’ve got Archie Bunker disease.
CTRL-Z,
ONE TIME PAD
DONE PROPERLY IS SECURE
@Enterik
OTPs are pretty good, but you still have to physically transport the pad keys, which are vulnerable to interception and loss. Another problem with the OTP is the random-number generator required to build the keys. Keys built with generators on laptops and small computers are NOT secure. You really need a very high-quality (i.e. expensive) generator. I once played with the shorted audio input to the computer’s ADC as a seed which worked pretty well, but I am sure the NSA is aware of that trick by now.
As you said, if done well, OTPs are secure, but are not for the faint-hearted.