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Dear Google…

By on May 2, 2015 in Cryptography, Google, Internet, Privacy

I appreciate Googles concerns when it comes to our online security. However, I think we might have a case of unintended consequences.

If you log on to your Google services from a new (or unknown) piece of hardware or from a new place, Google seems to block this attempt — often demanding that you change your password. I can see the logic behind that.

But if this happens often (and for some it does) it will lower the quality of the chosen new password. Having to figure out a new password/phrase (that you can remember) on the go simply doesn’t give you time to consider a strong and impregnable one.

Just sayin’.

/ HAX

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Big Entertainment and Big Media declaring war on VPN

By on April 18, 2015 in Big Business, Copyright, Democracy, File Sharing, Free Markets, Intellectual Property, Privacy, VPN

TorrentFreak reports from New Zeeland…

“A pair of Internet providers who defied TV company demands to switch off their VPN services will be sued in the coming days. CallPlus and Bypass Network Services face legal action from media giants including Sky and TVNZ for allowing their customers to use a VPN to buy geo-restricted content.”

This was somehow expected. The copyright industry is very annoyed when it comes to VPN services.

There is reason to believe that the New Zeeland cases will be the start of a series of similar court cases around the world. The entertainment and media industries are essentially multinational. Most likely, this is just a pilot case.

Once again Big Business wants to shut down legitimate Internet services, just to protect their outdated business models. But they can never win. Instead, they should accept and embrace the simple fact that the Internet provides one global media market.

It is ridiculous to believe that people all over the world would refrain from watching their favourite TV series and films if VPN services where to be shut down. It would only bring new life to traditional illegal file sharing.

One must remember that people using media services via VPN are not pirating. They are paying customers – only in another country. All Big Entertainment and Big Media might accomplish by going after VPN services is to turn these paying customers into non-paying pirates.

The fact that the copyright industry refuses to adopt to a global, connected market is nothing new. This seems to be a never ending story.

But VPN is not just about light entertainment. VPN is serious stuff. It is used by companies, organisations, governments and private individuals for security and privacy reasons. It is a way to get round censorship. It is a part of the toolbox that dissidents, opposition groups and activists  use to communicate securely.

There is no way Big Entertainment and Big Media should be allowed to shut down this important instrument of freedom, security and anonymity. Instead, they must learn to adapt to the real world market.

TorrentFreak: TV Companies Will Sue VPN Providers “In Days” »

/ HAX

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Government and encryption: The split key approach

By on April 14, 2015 in Big Brother, Cryptography, Privacy, US

Governments are trying different approaches to circumvent encryption. While the British can send you to jail if you don’t give up your password, the US administration (restricted by the fifth amendment) is floating an alternative concept: the split key.

The idea is to gain access to smart phones and computers trough a unique “master key” for each unit, that is split in two — where the tech company in question has one part and the government has the other. By a court order the tech company could be ordered to hand over their part of the key to the government.

Keeping track of every new or used smartphone, tablet, laptop an PC and who is using it — pairing it with half a unique key — for sure will create a lot of new jobs in the public sector. And it will become a mess.

One central issue is how not to compromise user security. The Washington Post writes…

But some technologists still see difficulties. The technique requires a complex set of separate boxes or systems to carry the keys, recombine them and destroy the new key once it has been used. “Get any part of that wrong,” said Johns Hopkins University cryptologist Matthew Green, “and all your guarantees go out the window.”

How can we even trust that tech companies will not collaborate with the government behind their customers back? It has happened before. Would you bet on it never happening again? Ever?

And, is it necessary?

Neither Bitkower nor FBI Director James B. Comey, who also has been vocal about the problem, has been able to cite a case in which locked data thwarted a prosecution. But they have offered examples of how the data are crucial to convicting a person.

Should we really treat all citizens as potential criminals or terrorists? Will not the uncertainty about security breaches and fuck ups overshadow possible “benefits”? Do people have any reason to trust government any more than the government trusts them?

Somehow, this is no longer a question of security, law enforcement or even intelligence activities. It has become a matter of principle. The government demands to have access to all citizens all telecommunications and computers.

This is a red line that should never be crossed. Because if we do, it will be irreversible.

WP: As encryption spreads, U.S. grapples with clash between privacy, security »

/ HAX

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EU: Should you be in control of your personal data or not?

By on April 10, 2015 in Big Business, Big Government, Data Protection, EU, Privacy

The European Union is currently working on a new legal framework for data protection.

This process has been subject to massive lobbying from companies on both sides of the Atlantic – trying to water it down.

At the moment the dossier is dealt with at the European Council. There EU member states seems to be just as eager to undermine any substantial protection of citizens rights to their own data as the industry lobbyists.

This is a complex process, hidden behind a wall of documents and often carried out behind closed doors. It’s all so complicated that the media seems to choose to ignore it.

So, what is the conflict all about?

To put it simply: It’s about your right to control your own personal data.

The principle that lobbyists and member states refuse to accept is that it should be up to you to decide if and how your data is to be used. It’s a matter of consent.

The Big Business and Big Government approach is that there is no need for consent. That you should not be in control of how your personal information is used. That you and your rights are not important.

The usual suspects would like to keep us all as digital slaves.

This is about privacy. And it’s about your right to control your own life.

/ HAX

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Europol lobbying against encryption

By on March 29, 2015 in Big Brother, Cryptography, EU, NSA & Snowden, Privacy

The law enforcement lobbying campaign against encryption continues. Today it’s Europols director Rob Wainwright who is trying to make a case against privacy on BBC 5.

Europol chief warns on computer encryption »

This is the same man who told the European Parliament that Europol is not going to investigate the alleged NSA hacking of the SWIFT (international bank transfer) system. The excuse he gave was not that Europol didn’t know about it, because it did. Very much so. It was that there had been no formal complaint from any member state.

So the EU police agency happily turned a blind eye to ongoing crime — when possibly committed by the NSA.

That will give you an indication about where the Europols sympathies lies. That is, not with the general public.

/ HAX

 

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