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Decrypt, or else…

By on March 22, 2017 in Big Brother, Cryptography, IT security, Law enforcement, Privacy, Rule of law, US

Falkvinge:

An appeals court has denied the appeal of a person who is jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt files. The man has not been charged with anything, but was ordered to hand over the unencrypted contents on police assertion of what the contents were. When this can result in lifetime imprisonment under “contempt of court”, the United States has effectively outlawed file-level encryption – without even going through Congress.

Falkvinge: With appeals ruling, the United States has effectively outlawed file encryption »

Ars Technica: Man jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt hard drives loses appeal »

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Encryption vs. Law Enforcement

By on February 20, 2017 in Big Brother, Cryptography, IT security, Law enforcement, Privacy, surveillance

CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) has just released its report on encryption and it comes to the same conclusions many other reports have: encryption is good for everyone and law enforcement fears are overstated and mostly-unrealized.

Techdirt: New Report On Encryption Confirms There’s More Of It, But Still Not Much Of A Problem For Law Enforcement »

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Edward Snowden building safe communication tools for reporters

By on February 14, 2017 in Anonymity, Cryptography, Free Information, Freedom of the Press, Hacktivism, Privacy, Snowden

Since early last year, Snowden has quietly served as president of a small San Francisco–based nonprofit called the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Its mission: to equip the media to do its job at a time when state-­sponsored hackers and government surveillance threaten investigative reporting in ways Woodward and Bernstein never imagined. “Newsrooms don’t have the bud­get, the sophistication, or the skills to defend them­selves in the current environment,” says Snowden, who spoke to WIRED via encrypted video-chat from his home in Moscow. “We’re trying to provide a few niche tools to make the game a little more fair.”

Wired » Edward Snowden’s New Job: Protecting Reporters From Spies »

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Your password or your freedom

By on February 12, 2017 in Civil rights, Cryptography, Data Protection, Privacy, Rule of law, US

Francis Rawls, a former Philadelphia police sergeant, has been in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center for more than 16 months. His crime: the fired police officer has been found in contempt of court for refusing a judge’s order to unlock two hard drives the authorities believe contain child pornography. Theoretically, Rawls can remain jailed indefinitely until he complies. (…)

He’s not charged with a crime. Judge demands he help prosecutors build their case.

Ars Technica: Man jailed 16 months, and counting, for refusing to decrypt hard drives »

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Proton Mail strikes back

By on January 20, 2017 in Anonymity, Big Brother, Cryptography, Internet, Privacy

ProtonMail, the privacy-focused email business, has launched a Tor hidden service to combat the censorship and surveillance of its users.

The move is designed to counter actions “by totalitarian governments around the world to cut off access to privacy tools” and the Swiss company specifically cited “recent events such as the Egyptian government’s move to block encrypted chat app Signal, and the passage of the Investigatory Powers Act in the UK that mandates tracking all web browsing activity”.

The Register: ProtonMail launches Tor hidden service to dodge totalitarian censorship »

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Apple, please help to save private e-mail encryption

By on January 13, 2017 in Apple, Cryptography, Privacy

After the latest Mac OS upgrade (Sierra) – GPG encryption of mail doesn’t work. Apparently, the GPGTools-people need to do a lot of reverse engineering. And as they kindly offer the world encryption for free their resources are limited.

This might lead to people turning away from e-mail encryption, at a point in time where more people ought to take it up. This should be an argument strong enough for Apple to give the GPG-team a helping hand.

But there are also other implications that ought to catch Apple’s attention:

  • If GPG does not work, people might refrain from updating their Mac OS.
  • All new Macs are delivered with Sierra, forcing people who have invested in new Apple hardware either to quit using e-mail encryption or using a cumbersome workaround.
  • People who still want GPG/PGP encryption might – or rather will – turn away from the Mac platform to Windows or Linux.

It is clearly in Apple’s best interest to get GPG mail encryption working again.

/ HAX

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In defence of encryption

By on December 21, 2016 in Cryptography

There is a legitimate need to protect communications among individuals and between individuals and public and private organisations. Cryptography provides the electronic equivalent of letter cover, seal or rubber stamp and signature. In the light of terror attacks and organised crime, law enforcement and intelligence services have requested to create means to circumvent these protection measures. While their aims are legitimate, limiting the use of cryptographic tools will create vulnerabilities that can in turn be used by terrorists and criminals, and lower trust in electronic services, which will eventually damage industry and civil society in the EU.

Techdirt: European Information Security Advisory Says Mandating Encryption Backdoors Will Just Make Everything Worse »

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EU mulling over encryption – behind closed doors

By on December 15, 2016 in Cryptography, EU

It seems that, once again, an important legislative process is being set in motion behind closed doors. With the exception of the Council meeting outcomes document, none of the documents were made public. The lack of transparency around these actions, both at the EU and member state level, undermines the already vulnerable trust between EU citizens, their respective governments, and EU institutions.

EDRi: Council debates encryption and other closed-door matters »

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