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New anti-eavesdropping app available

me | 08.02.2013 07:08 | Policing | Repression | Technology

"The app is already available on both iPhone and Android, and its functionality has recently been broadened to allow users to not only communicate securely but also easily send encrypted files."



I still wouldn't plan an action using electronic media, but this COULD be useful. (sorry for the Daily Hate-mail link)

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2274597/How-foil-eavesdroppers-The-smartphone-encryption-app-promises-make-communications-private-again.html#ixzz2KHxIZQ1m

Would be interested to know what others think of this.

me

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Niner.

08.02.2013 11:21

'Society is better off with everybody having locks on their doors. Everybody having locks including the criminals,' he said.'

Oh, if only you knew what a giveaway that is...and why it is so bad for society as a whole.

It is fear that drives the surveillance state. Fear that the technology you are using is sufficiently strange that you cannot know what is happening to you while you use it. The vast majority have no idea how a computer works, so inevitably their understanding of what a computer is capable of is shaped by those who exploit that fear. This little outfit are just exploiting the public ignorance in order to get them to use software that is so easily used to surveill only those who select themselves using encryption criteria.

How do you wade through the industrial quantities of data that is sent across the global network every day?

You can't. The only way you can even start is to reduce the quantity of data. The only way you can do that...is to release software onto the market that will encourage people to select themselves according to their proclivity to 'secretise' their data.

If its successful, activists will have selected themselves for surveillance by selecting the tools that will surveill themselves and their data. Remember, the state and its minions have a legal requirement and obligation to ensure that you voluntarily take up your own misfortune. Its important for these clowns to be able to say that you trapped yourself.

Please do try to remember that when you are using software to encrypt your data, there is always that magic moment when you have your data loaded in the application before the encryption takes place. That is the moment these 'apps' are most interested in.

The best way to communicate sensitively online, is always to speak in code. Its easier for you and its easier for your friends. It is enormously difficult for the state, is security apparatus and its privateering opportunists to get a handle on that. Not only is that approach secure...but it is also free, as in beer and speech.

anonymous
mail e-mail: anonymous@smuckster.com


Not much protection

08.02.2013 12:40

The problem with these methods is that whilst they provide excellent protection against your garden variety script kiddie they're not much use against government agencies and their massive budgets. Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc are already known to work with the NSA and GCHQ to install back doors into their software. iOS, Android, Windows, etc should all be considered compromised. If government agencies want to spy on you some silly little app isn't going to provide any protection when they can simply see what you're doing in iOS or Android in real time any way.

Also they can simply force you to hand over passwords/encryption keys by using RIPA, failing to do so is punishable by a prison sentence.

Counter spook


"The best way to communicate sensitively online, is always to speak in code"

08.02.2013 20:18

"The best way to communicate sensitively online, is always to speak in code. Its easier for you and its easier for your friends. It is enormously difficult for the state, is security apparatus and its privateering opportunists to get a handle on that. Not only is that approach secure...but it is also free, as in beer and speech. "

Err,,, what do you think encryption is if not talking in code. You do realise that any code you and your comrades can develop is infinitely easier for "spooks" to crack than 128+ bit PGP encryption... the encryption created by Phil Zimmerman who is also behind this latest "Silent Circle" business. You don't have to trust their app... you don't even have to use it. You can perfectly encrypt your communications using GPG (open source implementation of PGP) without having to trust an app to do it. You can even use programs to encrypt files for which you can claim plausible deniability to get past RIPA. Julian Assange created a tool that does this I believe.

I understand that a lot of people on here are suspicious of technology and what if anything it can do to them, but to denounce everything on the basis of ignorance is not a productive stance to take, The crypto-anarchists scene of the 90s has given activists a lot of tools with which we can use to IMPROVE the security of our electronic communications and we should USE them where they may be of real benefit.

What do you think the guys at riseup.net are using? What do you think the writers of the numerous "technical advice for activists" guys are recommending? What is this website doing?

Get clued up and understand that from a computer-science perspective, sometimes you CAN guarantee a much higher degree of protection by using certain tools and being aware of ideas such as network theory. If you think that there are such obvious backdoors into Android then why have they not been discovered by all the people making their own custom ROMs for these devices? There are backdoors out there trust me, but just try to remember -- it's not just activists that want to hide their tracks in this world. Corporations and governments are also trying to hide vast amounts of information from each other... and we have access to the same methods and should use them when we understand how and what they are able to do for us.

crypto-anarchist


angais

08.02.2013 22:16

"Err,,, what do you think encryption is if not talking in code. You do realise that any code you and your comrades can develop is infinitely easier for "spooks" to crack than 128+ bit PGP encryption..."

Err,,, you think!? A one-time pad style of homemade coding is going to be infinitely more secure over time rather an off-the-shelf encryption standard. The enigma code was 'secure'.... now you can break it on your cruddy phone in 2 seconds. 5-20 years time, when they are using 16384 bit encryption, they will take all these recorded coded messages that used an off-shelf 128 encryption method, decode them on a $500 quantum computer, and use the evidence to prosecute you. Meanwhile, the home-coded stuff will still be a mystery because it is effectively a one-time pad.

Also, 128encryption .... the coding is done on the computer rather than in the brain. So if something is monitoring the computer without your knowledge, then you are stuffed.


>> Julian Assange created a tool that does this I believe.
Yeah, and look where he is now! Prosecution rests.

old skool crypto


one time pad? just another (imperfect) method of encryption

08.02.2013 22:52

and to make it practicable for most people to use it would have to be implemented through the use of a computer... which opens up a large number of vulnerabilities.

my point was really that simply posting that "talking in code" rather than using encryption, is to the layman, going to sound like they can just create some "black means white" table which is a piece of piss for anyone to crack. use encryption, use one time pad, non computer aided encryption if it's worth it for the risk involved.

but the argument of just all talking openly over facebook about everything because it will all be "lost in the noise" is complete crap. at the end of the day we do need to talk over the internet in this day and age and to put people off it completely and make them think that there is no-hope in staying anonymous and crypto'd is very helpful to the state.

crypto-anarchist


Droid in a drone.

09.02.2013 04:53

Erm, when i say talking in code i mean using your own slang. You know, talking obliquely so the other side simply cannot understand what it is thats being discussed. You yourself understand it, your friend who is known to you understands it, and trusted persons who are attached to your group understand selected bits of it, but third parties dont understand it. Third parties aren't even aware that the slang exists.

Ultimately, that remains the most secure way to communicate freely without being bothered by the 'crypto fascists' and their nerd brigade.

This is the problem with the online world, too many people you have never met, trying to convince you that they are your friends! What part of that isn't immediately of use to the nark and their profit seeking privateering army of 'crypto activista's'.

anonymous


Very bad advice

11.02.2013 12:23

People need to be very careful about what is being stated here as fact. There is NO unbreakable electronic encryption currently available to the public - PGP and its variations were broken nearly three years ago and there is a lot of government trolling on sites like this telling activists it is safe to use.

1 - No email is safe

2 - No website posting is safe

3 - No encryption software works.

hacker


Now listen up.

12.02.2013 15:54

Let me give an example of the best way to communicate.

Person 1: "So i'll see you tomoz at the gatehouse then"

Person 2: "Yeah, make sure you bring that radio"

Person 1: "I already left it there the last time I was there"

Person 2: "Sorted"

What does this conversation mean?

If you are a cop, it can mean anything you want it to mean so in terms of online surveillance, this conversations ambiguity encourages the cop to record it even though it isn't clear what the conersation actually means. This is the case for every single conversation the cop monitors. The result of this is a completely meaningless surveillance operation in which huge quantities of garbage are collected, and nobody can make head nor tail of the data.

But the conversation could also be a bomb plot. Person 1 is simply confirming that the bomb is in the place that both person 1 and person 2 have already agreed it should be.

There is simply no way to tell.

Or you could install software on your computer from a place or company you have no information about, run by people you have never met, with data that you cannot understand, on a computer you only slightly understand the workings of. Once this is done, you can then not bother speaking ambiguously because the software is encrypting your data. You can then engage in conversations like this.

Person 1: "So is it done then?"

Person 2: "Yeah, I put it at the gatehouse."

Person 1: "What, the bomb?"

Person 2: "Yeah, sorted"

Guess how long your encrypted software is going to keep you out of gaol?

P.S The answer doesn't contain any of the words days, weeks, months or years.
P.P.S We at Indymedia would never engage in any conversation like this because we are peaceful activists fighting against the very people who DO routinely engage in conversations like this...i.e the state and its armed murderers.

anonymous


If it makes you feel better

12.02.2013 16:29

If it makes you feel better yes we do have the ability to read any electronic communication regardless of the encryption system used however there has never been anything of the remotest interest to us published on Indymedia or by anybody that contributes to Indymedia.

We take a look at Indymedia UK about once a year on average when the odd key word combination pops up (as it did with this thread) but have never felt anything here was worth much follow up.

GCHQ and the other elements that make up the United Kingdom's Security Services have much more important people to worry about than the 'keyboard warriors' and Champagne Anarchist of this site so please feel free to communicate anyway you wish, we really don't care.

GCHQ person


GCHQ person post

14.02.2013 10:46

Reminds me of the case that Tariq Ali launched to see his MI5 file, he had been telling people for years he was routinely followed by the security services, that his phone was bugged and his mail intercepted. He won his case, his file was released to the court and the contents leaked to the press. The verdict of MI5 on him?

"Left wing rabble rouser, mostly harmless, no further action required"

I understand he never fully recovered from the humiliation.

News hound