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The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam
- white-flame 11y agoTo me, Comey is a man who has lost the goal in pursuit of his particular mission. Defense, intelligence, policing, all these things exist in order to uphold the constitution, protect the "American ideals", etc. Many of his statements pretty directly show that he doesn't care about the collateral damage to innocent people's privacy or any founding principles, he just wants his mission to be unhindered. It's the same mentality behind police forces wanting to make their job less dangerous and more straightforward, by escalating use of force and trampling rights. With this hypocrisy, as has come many times before (congress shocked and demanding privacy when the CIA spies on them, for instance)... I can only shake my head. Come on. Encryption is our webcam tape.
- blackbagboys 11y agoThis is a pattern you see in a lot of high-performing people. They aren't particularly interested in the 'big picture'. They may say they are, they may think they are, but on a practical, day-to-day basis, it's irrelevant. They know the mission of their organizational unit, they know the goals that need to be accomplished to achieve that mission, they know the metrics they need to hit to advance within that organization, and they are adept at focusing their full attention and energy on whatever task is in front them that leads directly to those ends. It's a personality type that thrives in large organizations - government, private, whatever - and to a certain extent its necessary to make large organizations work, but the risk is that you end up with people wielding significant power who behave like wind-up dolls.
- patmcguire 11y agoYeah... if you really do promote based on who's done what's best for the org, and it's sufficiently competitive, such that it's always between people who had a lot to give who gave their all, eventually all the other bits are stripped off, and it's just a cosine between the vector of you and the vector of the next step.
- AnthonyMouse 11y ago> they know the metrics they need to hit to advance within that organization This is really the one. It seems like the country is in a crisis of metrics. Nobody trusts anybody to do their job anymore so everything has to have a surrounding bureaucracy with the stated purpose of keeping everybody honest but having the actual consequence of setting many misguided and contradictory rules and then strictly enforcing an arbitrary subset of them. The people who succeed are then the people best able to game the bureaucracy rather than the people who are honest and good at their jobs. That is basically how the Soviet Union fell. Something has got to change if we don't want to be next.
- jacobush 11y agoWish I could upvote you a million times. Many supposedly capitalistic organizations are in fact like miniature Soviet Unions.
- danharaj 11y agoBureaucracy and hierarchy are the same no matter the ideological varnish.
- tdaltonc 11y agoWhat are the alternatives? I'm honestly asking. How can I coordinate the activities of 100+ people to a common goal, without providing intermediate goals to individuals?
- superuser2 11y agoWith people who are intrinsically motivated to do a good job. Craftspeople take pride in their work, because doing it well feels better than doing it poorly. They'll voluntarily make their own jobs more difficult if it makes the project better, even in ways that only others skilled in their craft would notice. They'll actually fight management for more hours, more money, better tools, different processes, etc. so they can get it right. Management's role isn't to force them to do their jobs, but to restrain them from going overboard. Of course, this requires that they feel respected, sufficiently autonomous, and compensated fairly. And that they like what they're doing, at least a little bit. You get this routinely from theater professionals. Warehouse stock pickers, not so much. Quantitative metrics and "goals" are a form of coercion that management deploys against its enemies to extract performance from people who fundamentally don't want to do a good job. In this kind of situation, we've taken to threatening to cut off their access to food and medicine and send armed men to seize their homes and cars (no, the layer of indirection between employers and lenders doesn't really matter). People like to eat, so they play along. And in rote jobs that only exist because they aren't cost-effective to automate yet, maybe that's the only way to do it. You're not guaranteed a work environment where craftsmen are intrinsically motivated just by foregoing metrics, but as soon as your introduce "goals" (i.e. threats) a good chunk of people who would otherwise be on your side have instantly switched to searching for the minimum effort they can get away with until their either retire or find job that respects them. Even if people still somehow feel respected, hitting/optimizing the metrics probably means doing the job sub-optimally, and that takes its toll - even if you personally decide not to play the wrongheaded metrics game, others in the organization will, and that creates conflicts (that you usually lose) where there should have been cooperation. The Wire is essentially a show about this, and how it creates institutional dysfunction that breaks cities. "The fury of a bureaucrat who wants to do their job but can't because they've been fucked over."
- bobsil1 11y agoYou need to incorporate the big picture into the promotion incentives. Safety not # of FBI cases, health not # of hospital procedures, security not DOD wars.
- spinchange 11y agoSomething else to consider: Comey is also the man who famously rushed to the bedside of a very ill John Ashcroft who was being asked by Alberto Gonzales to reauthorize the warrantless wiretapping [now known as STELLAR WIND] to stop it because he felt it was illegal. Like he actually threatened to quit and was acting AG. [1] I'm no way trying to defend his agency's actions on encryption - it's chilling and probably one of the most important and defining issues of the information age. Only adding this to point out that people are complex and not black and white and their motives and beliefs and actions can sometimes be in conflict and cognitively dissonant. 1 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500864.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05...
- JabavuAdams 11y agoThis just underscores that people are complex, fallible, and inconsistent and that we rarely have the full story. With people like this, I'd just really like to get them alone in a room, off the record, and probe their beliefs, motivations, why they did things, etc. I wonder what it was like to work with Comey at Bridgewater Associates.
- coliveira 11y agoI don't understand why smart people have so much trust on encryption mechanisms. For any information to be useful, it has to be converted in some way. For example, if it is an image it has to be unconverted and presented as pixels in a screen. If you're typing an email it has to come unencrypted from a keyboard. Encryption only make it difficult to access the information once it is transmitted, but it is still pretty easy to create a virus or something that access the data at the moment it is used. In my opinion there are cases in which using tape on a webcam is far superior than using complicated encryption strategies.
- IMcD23 11y agoWhile it isn't smart to assume that if its encrypted in transit, it can't be viewed by someone else on the other end, it is still necessary to have encryption in transit. You want to minimize the amount of places the data can be accessed by a third party.
- CyberDildonics 11y ago> pretty easy to create a virus or something Step 1: Find someone using encryption Step 2: ???? pretty easy to create a virus or something ???? Step 3: Access encrypted information. Why dig a well when water evaporates into the air? Because pragmatically the amount of water over time matters and what could be described in an incredibly naive way as an absolute suddenly becomes a very different scenario when looking at reality. The NSA has tapped fiber backbones, encryption would stop them from getting information from that source. If you think there is already no privacy, post your full name, address and a picture of yourself in the shower, I'll leave it up to you whether you want to encrypt it or not. (Also the fact that anyone is able to store crypto-currencies pokes an immediate hole in your theory)
- grkvlt 11y ago> The NSA has tapped fiber backbones [...] If you think there is already no privacy, post [etc.] I'm actually OK with the idea of sending my full name, address and a picture of myself in the shower to the NSA, CIA, SIS or similar, to be included in one of their databases. Because that's what we're talking about, privacy from law enforcement and intelligence agencies searching for criminals, spies, terrorists etc. To suggest that posting such information publicly is exactly the same as it existing in these agency databases is pretty disingenuous.
- rpgmaker 11y ago> To me, Comey is a man who has lost the goal in pursuit of his particular mission. Many of his statements pretty directly show that he doesn't care about the collateral damage to innocent people's privacy or any founding principles, he just wants his mission to be unhindered. There's nothing new about this, btw. The US government doesn't care about protecting the elusive "American ideals" or your freedoms and it has been that way for decades if not hundreds of years. There's nothing idealistic about the way a government operates, regardless of country.
- krick 11y ago> all these things exist in order to uphold the constitution, protect the "American ideals", etc Excuse me, but you are made to believe that they exist in order to uphold the constitution and yada yada.
- dclowd9901 11y agoSo true. The original constitution is pretty clear on inalienable rights and such, but truthfull, the current government operates a bit more like an HR department, talking about helping you, but really merely trying to maintain a status quo.
- frade33 11y ago'I will remain loyal to the state and constitution' ... where does it say 'remain loyal to its people' ?
- comboy 11y agoI don't really understand the webcam paranoia. If my computer is completely compromised, somebody watching my face is the least of my worries.
- kobayashi 11y agoIt's about risk/threat minimization
- drvdevd 11y agoIt seems like a losing battle though. Small embedded cameras are becoming too widespread and you can't put tape on all of them. I think looking forward it's not unreasonable to rely on software controlled switches to minimize this risk, knowing that they will fail or be exploited sometimes anyway.
- kobayashi 11y agoStill, I'd say my comment stands. It's about threat minimization. Reduce the attack surface by covering the cam.
- CorpOverreach 11y agoTo me it's not about the computer being compromised, but rather joining a WebEx/Hangouts/other conference/meeting software that suddenly decides to start sharing your webcam without prompting you. There's been numerous times where I've joined meetings and someone gets caught with a goofy face or working from home in their PJs because they mis-clicked something on a crappy e-meeting UI.
- csydas 11y agoI used WebEx meetings for the first time very recently and was rather frustrated by this as well. Quite a few of my colleagues had the exact same issue, and there were quite a few surprised people showing up on the camera after clicking the camera icon after mistaking the preview as broadcasting to the meeting.
- kobayashi 11y ago>"I saw something in the news, so I copied it. I put a piece of tape — I have obviously a laptop, personal laptop — I put a piece of tape over the camera. Because I saw somebody smarter than I am had a piece of tape over their camera." Such a telling statement. It's my belief that this man does not adequately comprehend the magnitude of the issues at hand. General Hayden, on the other hand, is a man whom I believe to actually understand the technology that he was charged with professional addressing.
- jd3 11y agoHayden understands technology like a politician understands rhetoric. He's a snake.
- kobayashi 11y agoI have no reason to believe that he's a snake - quite the opposite. He seems to be a man with strongly held convictions and a keen eye for reason. I certainly don't always agree with him, but he's thoughtful and thorough, as can be observed from his many interviews and his recent book. I can respect a person without agreeing wholeheartedly with them, and such is the case for Hayden. Comey, on the other hand, seems to be a one-track-mind kind of guy; a personality that is associated with the worst kinds of cops.
- thotpoizn 11y agoI am hesitant to engage at this level, but - you just couldn't be more wrong about Comey. I know him to be every bit as thoughtful and reasonable as your glowing description of Hayden. That doesn't mean I agree with all of his positions, but he is one of the smarter people I've met, and I do not believe that is an indication of how sheltered my life has been. I also know him to be perfectly capable of acknowledging when he's gotten it wrong, and generally willing to admit it, change course, and move on. That leaves me fairly optimistic about how this whole mess will turn out. In any case, you taking this instance, and something you obviously feel strongly about, and using it to craft barbs about "the worst kinds of cops" - well, frankly that's exactly the kind of emotional hyperbole that will continue to make rational discourse here difficult. This sort of frothy angst distracts from otherwise potentially reasonable arguments, and probably makes dismissing them seem more reasonable. Can you see how that might be happening here?
- dublinben 11y agoSo does my mother. She is able to coherently explain why, though, and isn't a massive hypocrite when she does so.
- themartorana 11y agoTrust me, I wouldn't.
- awqrre 11y agoSo even the FBI can't protect their networks?
- nitrogen 11y agoFrom HN 3 days ago: "FBI Says a Mysterious Hacking Group Has Had Access to US Govt Files for Years" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11433178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11433178
- everly 11y agoI'd be interested in finding out how many people do this with the front facing camera on their phone. It seems to be a much lower percentage than those who do it with their laptop webcam (from what I've observed at least).
- dsl 11y agoYou would find ioerror's cell phone project interesting: https://people.torproject.org/~ioerror/skunkworks/moto_e/ https://people.torproject.org/~ioerror/skunkworks/moto_e/
- Kenji 11y agoI recently did it with the front facing camera of my phone. The back facing camera always points into the table. I feel uncomfortable undressing myself with that 'eye' staring at me (crazy times we live in ;p). I mean, this is one of those security measures that cost you basically nothing (a sticker) and can save you a huge ache in the unlikely case that someone is actually recording - why not do it?
- Digit-Al 11y agoThat seems a little silly to me. A laptop camera is normally facing into the room, but the camera on your phone will normally be facing upwards, so surely you have nothing to worry about unless you are standing naked over your phone. Actually, that's given me a great idea to secure my phone from hackers. Stand over it naked and waggle my sack about - that's one camera they'll never ever hack again lol
- alanwatts 11y agoEvery time you use your phone your camera is on your face. Facial microexpressions could be automatically detected and analyzed based on the content the user was viewing at the time. This information could provide a detailed emotional picture of the individual as it relates to different stimuli.
- 11y ago
- billhendricksjr 11y agoDon't almost all cameras activate their "on" light when being used?
- everly 11y agoIt seems reasonable to assume that a bad actor who is able to gain access to a computer's webcam could also override the software that activates said "on" light.
- HappyTypist 11y agoMost laptops have them wired in hardware, i.e. you can't power on the webcam without the circuit also lighting up the light as a side effect.
- icebraining 11y agoSome laptop do. Most? I'm not so sure of that.
- Reedx 11y agoDo MacBooks?
- icebraining 11y agoNot the 2008 model. I don't know about newer ones. "iSeeYou: Disabling the MacBook Webcam Indicator LED" https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/36569/camera.pdf?sequence=1 https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2...
- tonmoy 11y agoYeah, but you may not notice it if it takes a snap and then turns off
- 11y ago
- workerIbe 11y agoIf it's a company laptop, put tape on it.
- mwti 11y agoAll these little wires [0] emit electromagnetic radiation that be intercepted and turned back into whatever you see (and more). Despite what you read on Hacker News no amount of encryption or software trickery is going to stop this. [0]: http://imgur.com/IHXKlNw http://imgur.com/IHXKlNw
- colejohnson66 11y agoI like to believe that converting those EM signals back into something useful is beyond the ability of current technology, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong
- rdl 11y agoThis has been a known/practical attack for decades. OTOH, it does require physical proximity, although you could probably do it with a remotely controlled sensor at an intermediate location near the target. What would be terrifying would be if someone could figure out how to do this attack via software compromise of some hardware sensor system already present throughout the environment; say, a way to repurpose a wifi chipset to pick up nth-order harmonics off a keyboard bus or something. Then, remote-root of some lesser machine could be used to spy on a hardened machine.
- gregpilling 11y agoThat was done a couple years ago "IN THE AGE of surveillance paranoia, most smartphone users know better than to give a random app or website permission to use their device’s microphone. But researchers have found there’s another, little-considered sensor in modern phones that can also listen in on their conversations. And it doesn’t even need to ask." http://www.wired.com/2014/08/gyroscope-listening-hack/ http://www.wired.com/2014/08/gyroscope-listening-hack/
- gregpilling 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking Have you heard of this? Video demonstration https://youtu.be/ZZ5HS8GWIec?t=1m45s https://youtu.be/ZZ5HS8GWIec?t=1m45s
- rdl 11y agoI care about audio so much more than video, and text/keys/etc captured from the machine even more. As long as my screen and keyboard are out of the frame of the camera, I don't really care about it getting RATed. At worst, you'll see me naked, or making angry/etc. faces at someone on irc or email. While embarrassing it would be less bad than most of what you could accomplish by stealing actual information. OTOH, carrying around a microphone connected to the Internet which can be remotely enabled at any time without leaving any real trace (battery use/network use is the only real sign, although even that could be covered up to a great degree -- there is probably a way to do either low-fidelity or infrequent audio pickup, maybe keyed on location and charger state, and on-device pre-processing) -- people do this all the time Mostly because there's no real alternative to carrying smartphone yet. Plus, of course, there's the fact that no modern desktop OS is particularly secure -- either you give up auto-updates and likely fall to bugs, or use auto-updates and are at risk to your OS vendor or anyone who can compel him. So sensors attached to it, as well as stuff processed on it, is also at risk. You can somewhat mitigate this through a large combination of other protections, but it's almost impossible for a single user single machine to solve that problem. I'd love a custom run of Dell Chromebook 13 or Lenovo Thinkpad 13 Chrome Edition with no built-in mic/camera, and an EPROM vs. EEPROM, and some special case features. Would be willing to commit to buy 10k units at ~$800/unit retail in 8-16GB x 32GB config.
- ww520 11y agoI put a tape over the camera on all my laptops. It's just basic security measure.
- chrisper 11y agoOr is it basic paranoia? Who draws the line where?
- trollian 11y agotin. foil. hat.
- trollian 11y agotin. foil. hat.
- robertkrahn01 11y agoEver seen Whitfield Diffie's Laptop? ;) http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-sticky-tape-can-secure-your-macbook/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-sticky-tape-can-secure-your...
- tlrobinson 11y agoIt's not that uncommon. EFF sells a sticker set specifically for this purpose: https://supporters.eff.org/shop/laptop-camera-cover-set https://supporters.eff.org/shop/laptop-camera-cover-set
- StanislavPetrov 11y agoI've been telling friends and family to do this long before the Snowden revelations (as well as disabling their computers internal microphone). Many of them mocked me about the shine on my tinfoil hat. They don't do so much mocking anymore.
- tlrobinson 11y agoEFF sells a sticker set specifically for this purpose: https://supporters.eff.org/shop/laptop-camera-cover-set https://supporters.eff.org/shop/laptop-camera-cover-set
- NelsonMinar 11y agoThey're really nice, too. Thick enough to block almost all light. And Post-It Note-like glue, so you can remove and replace the sticker occasionally.
- zhte415 11y agoEvery corporate laptop I've worked with has the camera and microphone physically removed. If needed for a function, a USB camera and/or microphone is applied for through various chains of approval, and plug-in pull-put tracked.
- rhizome 11y agoI bought a Lenovo Thinkpad 450S about 6mos ago and configured it without a webcam/mic.
- a3n 11y ago> "absolute privacy" hampers law enforcement. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ..." Sorry man, you were instituted to serve me, at my consent and pleasure, not the other way around. You have the make the case to me to do what you want, not the other way around.
- giardini 11y agoComey: "Because I saw somebody smarter than I am had a piece of tape over their camera." Snowden?
- CullingTheHerd 11y agoSo 21st century. If this was 20 years ago, headline would read: "The FBI Director Puts Electric Tape Over His Blinking VCR Clock"
- downandout 11y agoI think it's a big stretch to compare this to uncrackable encryption. While the piece of tape makes one avenue of surveillance impossible, it doesn't block them all. If law enforcement needed to surveil him in the same way that a webcam could, they could get a court order and place a camera in his home. Uncrackable encryption, on the other hand, blocks all possible avenues of surveiling the desired communications. That isn't a bad thing, but it is different than placing tape over a webcam. I am definitely a proponent of government-proof encryption technologies, but grasping at straws trying to call this guy a hypocrite seems like a wasted effort to me.
- jandrewrogers 11y agoThis can't be unfamiliar to the director of the FBI. I have tape on my laptop cameras placed there by intelligence agencies as a prerequisite for bringing my laptop inside their security perimeter, albeit in a quarantined space. The reason I was given for the tape when asked was interesting, since they obviously didn't care about the microphone. Supposedly it was possible for the camera to capture people in the facility in the background and through glass that could be matched with facial recognition. The very fact that certain people were seen inside their facility could be sufficient to expose secrets they wanted to protect. Audio, on the other hand, just captures ambient noise in quarantined spaces which isn't that interesting since the discussion is not classified. In that sense, the camera has much greater range than the microphone. Which makes some sense. But surely the Director of the FBI would know this.
- thorin 11y agoBest surveillance film ever http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0071360/ http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0071360/
- make3 11y agoGenuinely funny song on the issue : The Government Knows - Knower : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zH9Zca1vRM&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zH9Zca1vRM&app=desktop
- ck2 11y agono-one tell him the mic is still always on
- x0054 11y agoHow stupid do you have to be to doubt the security of your laptop enough to put tape over your webcam, but not enough to stop using it all together. If you are concerned that your laptop might be compromised, then you should stop using it. If hackers have access to your webcam, they most certainly also have access to your keyboard, mic, and every file on your system as well. So, what you are basically saying to the world is you don't care enough about your personal communication, files, and speech to properly secure your laptop, but by god, no one shall see you in front of your laptop. It's like sitting in a car that's on fire and saying to your self: "I know, I'll turn on the air con!"
- leereeves 11y ago"Stop using it altogether" isn't a viable option, because it's not this particular laptop whose security is questionable, it's every laptop.
- x0054 11y agoThat may be true, but again, what do you care about more, your files and key strokes, or your webcam. If you have tape over your webcam but you still use online banking, you are a fucking idiot. You either have faith in the security of your computer, and log into your bank (risking hackers stealing all your money) or you don't. But if you don't think twice about saying anything you want in front of your computer or logging into your bank, but still chose to have type over your camera, I am sorry, but you are a idiot.
- leereeves 11y agoIf you have that much faith in the security of your computer, you are "an idiot". That's not within your control. It's not dumb to take whatever precautions you can. And people do worry about having their pictures taken. Remember the scandal when a school took pictures of children undressed at home with their laptops' cameras? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School...
- throwaway0209a 11y agoI used to have a piece of tape on my webcam. But I figured that it couldn't possibly be so interesting to see my face, so I took a different strategy, and moved the tape piece 1cm to the right, so it covers the led indicating if the camera is in use. I don't trust that LED anyway, and if someone should peek at me, I do not want to be made aware of it (and thereby distracted)
- sreenadh 11y agoIs it just me or is there at least one other person laughing their ass-off. Honestly, I am not sure to know if I am laughing at or feeling sorry for the FBI director. I felt that the director of FBI would not be scared of anyone monitoring him.
- beardog 11y agoNation state spies, criminal groups, insiders that want to whistleblow, etc. etc.
- dschiptsov 11y agoI am using a small sticker from some apples brand.)
- grumble1234 11y agoWhile it's not reasonable to ask this of everyone, it would seem to me that if anyone should strive to have "nothing to hide" it would be politicians and people in positions where they are definitely under foreign surveillance. Like okay, they have to do deal with classified material and sensitive things - but there is a time and place for that and I trust the FBI director doesn't use his personal laptop for work. He should be basically streaming his video camera on the internet for everyone to see - b/c the people that want to see it probably will
- strooper 11y agoI wonder what he uses as a (Smart)phone, if he uses any at all. Since there are very few with physical lens cover for the back camera, and probably none covering both (the front camera and the back). Recently, I have got back to feature phone after decade long struggle with several smartphones, keeping all on my desk for app development purpose only. I hope Comey would follow me. If not doing it now. ;)
- cm3 11y agoThere are actually smartphones and laptops where you can close the camera with an integrated sliding window. I don't know of such a thing for integrated microphones, but Thinkpad's bios allows disabling mic and camera, though if you don't trust bios's software switch, I'd recommend pulling the internal cables. Then you can connect a USB headset and/or camera on demand, knowing there's no always-on mic. But, since even Windows desktop edition has Cortana these days, I'm afraid mic will be harder to disable in newer machines.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- irixusr 11y agoNPR suggests people in the director's position have a more legitimate need to cover their webcams "... It's certainly not unreasonable to worry about webcams, especially for someone as high-profile as Comey" And teenagers? There is no mention in the article of the "Lower Merion School District" case where school officials were spying on teenagers through their webcams in their rooms. Call me old fashioned, but I think that's an important case for the general public to know about when discussing webcam privacy...
- known 11y agoHe should NOT represent FBI as long as he puts tape over his webcam;
- jff 11y agoFor a while there, when built-in webcams weren't quite as common, my employer would either remove the camera completely or, if that wasn't possible, they would smash the lens and sensor with a metal punch. They eventually quit (now we can use Lync to do video calls, even) but a lot of people now put little sliding windows over their cameras (you can get them at conferences these days, branded with the Splunk logo or whoever's giving them out)
- randominion 11y agoI use vinyl cling material to cover up the cams, but what you described is much better and exactly what I want. Got any pics?
- jff 11y agoLike this: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21g%2Bop3AZBL.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21g%2Bop3AZBL.jpg
- dsmithatx 11y agoIf I were director of the FBI I'd have an internet device secured by the sharp minds I hire. Probably more than one to route through and log packets, especially outgoing ones. I'd think as director of the FBI you could even get something like that setup on your personal laptop. I've been using OpenBSD, Snort, and also FreeBSD/PFSense to monitor my networks for at least 16 years even my own personal ones. The fact such a high profile target (and his team) can't figure out technology in this way seriously let's us know how inept and incompetent they must be. If he worries someone is watching him through his webcam I wonder how he feels about the microphone? Does he talk about top secret things in front of laptops?
- zekevermillion 11y agoIn Russian FSB top officials use only typewriters, and physically destroy the ribbons when done. Compare to our security officials, current and former. The political appointees who helm our security state bureaucracies bring to mind one's kindly uncle who still emails from AOL and forwards pop econ items from yahoo news.
- dandare 11y agoIsn't mic of much bigger importance than camera?
- livus 11y agoHonest question. Not to ignore any flame wars I have been following this surveillance and privacy debate. I understand that encryption cannot go both ways. We cannot create back doors that are only available to the good guys. Add to this that the 'good' guys are known to abuse power. But I also cannot deny that at certain times there are legitimate reasons for law enforcement. What solution, maybe political if not technical, can we adopt to meet the legitimate demands of law enforcement?
- slimsag 11y agoCool question, I was thinking of much the same last night. But, politically, nothing can be done because encryption and decryption is purely technical -- there is no middle ground that I see. From a technical perspective.., the solution is also just to give the keys away. Theoretically we could give all the private keys to "just one government agency" so that no middleman (e.g. a CDN, etc) can decrypt the data, but this still 100% trusts the government with all the data.
- diego_moita 11y ago> What solution, [...], can we adopt to meet the legitimate demands of law enforcement? One big problem is how to distinguish "legitimate" from not. In ideal conditions you'd have a court order to do so. But what good is a court order in places where it is very hard to know the difference between a gangster and a police officer (e.g.: Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, ...)? How do you protect the "solution" from the bad guys when you are not sure who the good guys and the bad guys are?
- daveheq 11y agoThe FBI knows how bad hardware and software security is, as well as how they're being exploited, and doesn't want the same things he wants from you.
- daveheq 11y agoWait, is he also blocking the microphone on his laptop? That seems like a much bigger security risk than his face.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- asab 11y agoAt 25:20 Comey cites "liberty and security" as American founding values, rather than "liberty and justice"