NSA and GCHQ have circumvented/cracked encryption used on the internet.

FootShooter · 06-09-2013 01:38AM #1

Probably the biggest reveal yet from the Snowden leaks. Modern privacy does not exist anymore, thousands of people can access all your data online, and probably have been for a few years. Anyone who uses encryption are named as adversaries. This is the dream for a totalitarian government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/us/nsa-foils-much-internet-encryption.html?hp&pagewanted=all

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryption-codes-security

King George VI · 06-09-2013 01:48AM

I didn't really understand a lot of that technical jibber-jabber. From what I gathered, they're spying on millions of people, there is no such thing as privacy any more and the NSA are a pack of bastards lovely bunch of people.

DubVelo · 06-09-2013 04:46PM

Anybody want to come out with "Sure, I've nothing to hide.", "It's only for looking at people suspected of terrorism and that." after reading that?

****ing Stasi.

PucaMama · 06-09-2013 04:55PM

whats the solution so? how do we protect ourselves?

Amirani · 06-09-2013 04:59PM

PucaMama wrote: »

whats the solution so? how do we protect ourselves?

We can't.

Gatling · 06-09-2013 04:59PM

PucaMama wrote: »

whats the solution so? how do we protect ourselves?

Turn off plain and simple ,

As much as people try to tout oh use this or that email or this encryption its unbreakable the american intelligence services have access to it all and have the finance to break any setup

kowloon · 06-09-2013 05:00PM

I wonder if they do things like gather data on the browsing habits of senior politicians, their emails and texts could come in handy too.

Rho b · 06-09-2013 05:01PM

PucaMama wrote: »

whats the solution so? how do we protect ourselves?

Stay off line, dump your up to date mobile phone/laptop - buy some homing pigeons instead :rolleyes:

flutered · 06-09-2013 05:03PM

then why had they not been asked to crack the anglo encription a while back

PucaMama · 06-09-2013 05:03PM

what about than tor thing? i dont understand much about it but ive seen it advertised

MonstaMash · 06-09-2013 05:04PM

No great surprise there in all fairness.

Amirani · 06-09-2013 05:04PM

kowloon wrote: »

I wonder if they do things like gather data on the browsing habits of senior politicians, their emails and texts could come in handy too.

I don't see why they wouldn't? They almost certainly are.

Tin-foil hat on here, but would you as a politician feel comfortable criticising the the NSA/GCHQ or calling for a reduction in their powers when they know every thing about you? You may not have done anything illegal that they know about, but they probably have lots of information that could embarrass you.

kowloon · 06-09-2013 05:04PM

Rho b wrote: »

Stay off line, dump your up to date mobile phone/laptop - buy some homing pigeons instead :rolleyes:

The NSA have trained Hawks patrolling as part of their contingency plan for such an eventuality.

AnonoBoy · 06-09-2013 05:05PM

Yeah right. There's no way they've cracked my own special code.

I assign every letter of the alphabet the name of a woman I have at any time in my life ever talked to. I then rate those women on a scale of one to ten as to how imaginary they are. I then divide that rating by the percentage of shame I feel for the time instead of visiting my sick grandmother in hospital I instead kept the taxi money my mother gave me and bought chips and played arcade games by myself for the afternoon and cried all the way home with the crippling guilt. After that I write the words backwards and upside down and add 7 to every number.

Of course I don't know how the NSA would access my secret journal which I keep in a hole in my mattress anyway but even if they did it'd be feck all use to them because of my special code of shame.

Amirani · 06-09-2013 05:08PM

PucaMama wrote: »

what about than tor thing? i dont understand much about it but ive seen it advertised

It's hard to know exactly how secure it is. It undoubtedly makes you more anonymous and more difficult to track, but is that really enough?

PucaMama · 06-09-2013 05:10PM

NiallSparky wrote: »

It's hard to know exactly how secure it is. It undoubtedly makes you more anonymous and more difficult to track, but is that really enough?

i only use a vpn at the minute id say tor would be better

kowloon · 06-09-2013 05:17PM

Just remembered a story about US intelligence that's not entirely related to this thread:

They used to be able to figure out with remarkable accuracy the number of Japanese troops in any given area. The Japanese suspected they had broken their codes because of this. As it turned out the real method being used was to take an aerial photo of the place and count the number of toilets. The Japanese were pretty proficient at staying hidden but they never bothered to cover up their bogs, who would want to put an effort into shelling a shithouse? There was a set ratio of bogs to men in Japanese regulations.

Amirani · 06-09-2013 05:29PM

PucaMama wrote: »

i only use a vpn at the minute id say tor would be better

Without doubt.

MadsL · 06-09-2013 05:34PM

Damn it, now my ISP knows about my midget porn.

*checks, dammit, not posting from dark web*

I've said too much...

>MadsL has disconnected

Mr Benevolent · 06-09-2013 05:50PM

People who use Tor and Dark Web are just flagging themselves as suspicious. The NSA's tech is way ahead of what is commercially available, they can hack Tor with impunity but just don't want to announce it as it could lead to peadophiles etc developing another system which could take month to hack properly.

Note: I am not calling all of those who use Tor and Dark Web paedophiles, but people are generally using the software for illegal purposes.

Karl Stein · 06-09-2013 06:00PM

PucaMama wrote: »

whats the solution so? how do we protect ourselves?

Letters sealed with wax delivered by a trusted associate on horseback, methinks.

Seachmall · 06-09-2013 06:02PM

PucaMama wrote: »

what about than tor thing? i dont understand much about it but ive seen it advertised

The majority of exit nodes on the Tor network are within the jurisdiction of the NSA, and with a bit of luck and elbow grease it is theoretically possible to track traffic back to the source.

That's not to say Tor is useless or broken, it's better than nothing, but people have been identified despite using it (albeit generally as a result of their own stupidity).

HandsomeJonny · 06-09-2013 06:28PM

This is both horrific and really a great thing at the same time. I reckon now more efforts will be used to implement unbreakable cryptography. The one time pad is the only unbreakable cipher. Its implementation is difficult. Essentially it relies on generating a random pad to encrypt and decrypt a message. If someone can implement a messageing service based on the one time bad the NSA will never be able to spy on messages again.

The difficulty here is the implementation. Theoretically the one time pad is unbreakable. However anyone you wish to communicate with you will have to exchange the pad in person and then you can communicate using the pads. Think of it like meeting your mate and sharing with him random cipher text of 300 characters. Say you do it 100 times. You can then send 100 secure messages. One weakness is if someone gets hold of the pad but that would be difficult if you meet in a shadowy place and trench coats to do the exchange.

NSA and GCHQ have circumvented/cracked encryption used on the internet.

Comments