Friday Squid Blogging: More Squids

Nick P • May 29, 2016 1:40 PM

@ Clive

That was actually one of the best, least-biased analyses I've seen of both Left and Right ideas on privilege plus their history. That was great! The reference to story with rich living in paradise for disease treament while crazy stuff happens all around them is apparently a timeless one. It applies to most wealthy, from Wall St to Silicon Valley. Just in different ways.

The one thing I disagree with is the conclusion where he shapes it as a battle between elites and wage class with both sides knowing everything is about to end or something. That's unsupported. Instead, from my vantage point in America, it looks like a variation of the same model where various elites put on a show to let people think they're being represented. Hillary is showing value to both voters and sponsors. Trump is doing the same. Sanders is doing the same. Their election isn't likely to change trends author describes that are created by *legislators and businesses*. Those types of people will continue to get elected, hired, whatever to do what benefits them. The media, whose role is critical, continues to focus each demographic on its assigned opponents while ignoring the key issues that would change our system. I listed a few examples here.

Note: I also wonder if it was my Tupac comment on HN that inspired you to share this one. Interesting coincidence. ;)

@ r

"The proxy recommendation should be clarified as not meaning merely a socks/HTTPS proxy in a non-extradition state but a partner (person-proxy) in such a venue."

Ideally but you have to get information to them. So, there needs to be covert communication mechanism to do that. A strong cryptosystem that poses as vanilla HTTPS to a site plenty of people connect to is best way to blend in. Alternatively, you use Tor, wifi hotspots outside camera range, meteor burst for important data pieces, or even postal system with magazines inside surrounding storage device. Just important that there's no traceability to you while data is moving.

"Oh! I almost forgot, I wanted to ask you about the proper channels of anonymously reporting private and medical data leaks..."

I've been away from that topic for too long to be helpful. I'd say just make sure whoever you leak to doesn't work for an organization that has conflict of interest that would lead to censorship. They need to have done similar exposes in the past. It can help to use foreign outlets if the issue is local where the foreign outlet publishes it followed by locals forced to report on it. The best I can do is give you this nice write-up by The Intercept on proper leaking. Others here might have saved other good write-ups they can post.

@ Grauhut

Sounds nice but three jumped out at me.

1. Use Android VM. That's a surveillance platform, although hardening guides exist, which is targeted by blackhats and governments all over. What are your specific reasons for recommending it instead of a disposable netbook or iPhone on wifi?

2. "the FTC and cc the local sheriffs office at the corp headquarters address." In the U.S., there's strong cooperation by many local sherifs with the federal government in things like fusion centers. They also fight for hand-me-downs in form of money and equipment. One can't rely on non-cooperation.

3. "dont try to play with mac addrs" Do play with mac addrs. Specifically, sniff out what MAC addrs are in use in the area you use for WiFi connections. Make a list of them. Then, whenever you show up, use a mac addrs from the list that isn't currently in use. If any mac logging happens, there will be some confusion as to who to target later. This can clue you into people on your trail as well given folks start acting weird after LEO's harass them.

@ Dan3264

re FPGA's

"I do not plan on building anything anytime soon. I like overthinking things without any plan of action(It's no fun to only think about practical things). Thank you for your detailed explanation of why it is a bad idea to use it(at least without including some sort of randomness extractor after the circuit). If I ever actually do something I will keep that in mind."

Lol. Alright, alright. I'm not saying your scheme of using FPGA's has no benefit. FPGA's and obfuscations are among my short-term solutions until the ASIC's come out. I'm just saying you have to remember that chip-level subversion can hit you hard regardless. You're lowering risk of an unquantifiable risk. Meaning you'll have to come up with some mitigation that assumes your chips will be hit. A transactional approach with multiple implementations from different countries/companies with verifiable, voter logic is Clive and I's common approach. Not sure how I'm going to make that responsive on FPGA's haha.

re Snowden for President

Terrible idea, homie. Let me tell you why, fan or opponent, that Snowden should never run a country. Here's a few.

1. He doesn't understand most Americans. Number 1 skill candidates have is knowing people and how they'll react to things. Helps them manage them plus get them to march in one direction. Plus gets the votes despite everyone disagreeing with stuff. Also, side effect, they use media to their advantage to make stuff happen. Snowden thought leaking all domestic and foreign secrets he had would result in worldwide coverage, including U.S. media, that would lead to Americans changing everything. He obviously lived in an echo chamber that had no clue about what the right-wingers and some moderates thought about things. He also didn't understand the media's goals or responses to such things whereas I clearly predicted what would happen. You can bet his Presidential run would similarly be ineffective.

2. Building on 1, he has no feedback loop or willingness to adjust strategy to changing conditions on battlefield of minds. The Oliver interview shocked even me when Snowden said he thought everyone was talking about his leaks, debating surveillance states, and fighting with government for changes. Whereas, over here, nobody talks about that stuff or even cares outside a tiny segment of people. What the hell was he reading? Any politican or even business executive needs to be reading both friends and opponents' statements... studying each... with a clear view of how successful or ineffective results they're getting from any given thing. Snowden doesn't have that despite it being really easy to get: read a few news papers with diametrically-opposite opinions. Shows he either has no access to Internet or is unwilling to study opponents. Bad sign.

3. He's an idealist. Successful Presidents have to be pragmatists. They have to carefully consider effects of what they're going to do. At the least, they have to be sure they'll get away wit hit. At other end, they might have to craft strategy that has compromises that appeal to most parties at least a little. True in Congress especially. Snowden is more like Ron Paul: so totally committed to his pure ideology that a lack of compromise potential will keep him out of White House and with small effect in Congress. All this especially becomes more obvious if we thought of how Snowden might approach international treaty negotiations for globalization issues. He'd cringe every second as no approach would be acceptable to him plus not devastate whole countries or sectors of our economy.

So, what could he be good for? Well, sys admin obviously. I'd consider him for an analyst in an organization like GAO. That he'll leak everything means he can't be trusted for job like holding military-industrial complex accountable. So, GAO might not even be good. I'd put his ass on something like the Tor project or NIST cryptographic/IT standards where he doesn't have access to national secrets but idealistic nature could protect civil liberties and American businesses. Foreign, too, given those both benefit foreign businesses and citizens when done right. That's my take.

from Schneier on Security http://ift.tt/1qPQukh

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