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After listening to Joe Rogan's interview with Edward Snowden I bought and listened to his book "Permanent Record." At this point I have to assume that at least

by mikece 7y ago

After listening to Joe Rogan's interview with Edward Snowden I bought and listened to his book "Permanent Record." At this point I have to assume that at least a dozen agencies in a handful of countries are watching me through my webcam as I type this message right now. Snowden suggested (or at least I inferred) that he didn't reveal all there is to know about the scope of government surveillance and it's only logical to conclude that techniques and technologies have gotten more advanced and more subtle since he fled the country.

hackerrenews 7y ago
Instead of assuming you could lock down your internet pipe. Use a RPi as a security appliance with strong whitelisted firewall policy. At least have some insight into what traffic is going to and from your LAN. Could also put in an entirely passive NIDS on a physical layer in-line with your network’s service entrance. Very difficult for anyone to defeat, when done right. Apologies for term misuse.
- balt_s 7y ago
  Or perhaps "the only winning move is not to play". I hear it is difficult to surveil through books.
  - monksy 7y ago
    Not unless they require your id to buy the book or check it out. The book store El Ateneo Grand Splendid requested my passport to buy the book "Argentinian Cooking". WTF
    - diego 7y ago
      Were you paying with a credit card? In Argentina the norm is to ask for id when paying with credit card, and if you're a foreigner the default would be to ask for your passport.
    - pmoriarty 7y ago
      Not only that, but some years back there was an expose about some government profiling software marking people as more likely to be terrorists if they didn't have a social media profile.
  - A4ET8a8uTh0 7y ago
    Even if you don't enough people do. My wife still uses FB. Amazon just came up with echo in frames. The privacy quickly becomes a luxury available only to select few.
  - jecke8888888 7y ago
    you still have to buy those books, presumably using a cc or at least by showing your face
  - gscott 7y ago
    > I hear it is difficult to surveil through books. Unless if you swipe your library card.
- oil25 7y ago
  > Instead of assuming you could lock down your internet pipe. Use a RPi as a security appliance with strong whitelisted firewall policy. At least have some insight into what traffic is going to and from your LAN. Not only would a Raspberry Pi be severely under-powered for routing even a small home network, in no way does monitoring that "goes to and from your LAN" defend against an adversary Snowden warns about. > Could also put in an entirely passive NIDS on a physical layer in-line with your network’s service entrance. Very difficult for anyone to defeat, when done right. Again, I'm not sure what threat model you think this defends against, but certainly not a three letter agency intent on either tailored exploitation nor passive monitoring of your inbound and outbound network traffic by the same actor.
  - hackerrenews 7y ago
    You used “either”, then “nor”, sorry I lost the point you were making. Wasn’t sure on your point about the adversary already owning the pipe. Tailored exploitation is a good point though. Admittedly RPi isn’t any current advice except for outdated hobbyist advice. If I cared to defend against nation state I’d avoid gen purpose CPU’s altogether and focus on in house manufactured minimal circuits, possibly fpga’s and printers or some other trusted peripherals. I’d build my own keyboards too. The poster was concerned about video being hacked. This would be hard to hide, at least for being owned in real-time, if one were keeping track of the packets coming and going. If you’re whitelisting all your outbound and disallowing inbound, and if your decoupled passive nids is set up right you at least have the physical network layer covered. If you’re targeted for tailored exploitation then you’d be considering a scif anyway if you really have something that important to hide. In a pinch, a faraday cage would probably be a good idea if you can set it up right. Don’t trust any devices that come in or out.
    - oil25 7y ago
      > The poster was concerned about video being hacked. This would be hard to hide, at least for being owned in real-time, if one were keeping track of the packets coming and going. How would keeping track of packets detect a compromised web cam absolutely? An SSL-encrypted connection to Amazon servers, for example, could easily be used to exfiltrate pictures, audio and even low-bandwidth recordings while still blending in with typical, expected Web traffic.
rapind 7y ago
They aren't watching you. They're recording you. They're running algorithms to classify and index you. They're building massive data centers to house all of this semi organized and raw data. And when they leak it all they won't be held accountable because terrorists, children, and stuff. It's not a conspiracy theory. It's real and it's a black hat's wet dream. Oh yeah, they can use it for political purposes too I suppose. To silence dissent and all that.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- wallace_f 7y ago
  Also -- and I swear I read thid in the NYTimes, but I can't find it -- CEOs are now not uncommonly ditching cellphones and laptops before going into important meetings. In a general sense, this sort of thing seems to have the potential to have incredible conseauences for liberty, justice, the economy and Western society.
monksy 7y ago
Ducktape man. That'll solve the problem.
A4ET8a8uTh0 7y ago
I think after Khashoggi's death the extent of surveillance could be evaluated based on the fact that US president had the option to review it. Guy was killed in a consulate in Turkey and, at the very least, US had audio ready to analyze.

by mikece 7y ago

hackerrenews 7y ago

Instead of assuming you could lock down your internet pipe. Use a RPi as a security appliance with strong whitelisted firewall policy. At least have some insight into what traffic is going to and from your LAN. Could also put in an entirely passive NIDS on a physical layer in-line with your network’s service entrance. Very difficult for anyone to defeat, when done right. Apologies for term misuse.

balt_s 7y ago
Or perhaps "the only winning move is not to play". I hear it is difficult to surveil through books.
- monksy 7y ago
  Not unless they require your id to buy the book or check it out. The book store El Ateneo Grand Splendid requested my passport to buy the book "Argentinian Cooking". WTF
  - diego 7y ago
    Were you paying with a credit card? In Argentina the norm is to ask for id when paying with credit card, and if you're a foreigner the default would be to ask for your passport.
  - pmoriarty 7y ago
    Not only that, but some years back there was an expose about some government profiling software marking people as more likely to be terrorists if they didn't have a social media profile.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 7y ago
  Even if you don't enough people do. My wife still uses FB. Amazon just came up with echo in frames. The privacy quickly becomes a luxury available only to select few.
- jecke8888888 7y ago
  you still have to buy those books, presumably using a cc or at least by showing your face
- gscott 7y ago
  > I hear it is difficult to surveil through books. Unless if you swipe your library card.
oil25 7y ago
> Instead of assuming you could lock down your internet pipe. Use a RPi as a security appliance with strong whitelisted firewall policy. At least have some insight into what traffic is going to and from your LAN. Not only would a Raspberry Pi be severely under-powered for routing even a small home network, in no way does monitoring that "goes to and from your LAN" defend against an adversary Snowden warns about. > Could also put in an entirely passive NIDS on a physical layer in-line with your network’s service entrance. Very difficult for anyone to defeat, when done right. Again, I'm not sure what threat model you think this defends against, but certainly not a three letter agency intent on either tailored exploitation nor passive monitoring of your inbound and outbound network traffic by the same actor.
- hackerrenews 7y ago
  You used “either”, then “nor”, sorry I lost the point you were making. Wasn’t sure on your point about the adversary already owning the pipe. Tailored exploitation is a good point though. Admittedly RPi isn’t any current advice except for outdated hobbyist advice. If I cared to defend against nation state I’d avoid gen purpose CPU’s altogether and focus on in house manufactured minimal circuits, possibly fpga’s and printers or some other trusted peripherals. I’d build my own keyboards too. The poster was concerned about video being hacked. This would be hard to hide, at least for being owned in real-time, if one were keeping track of the packets coming and going. If you’re whitelisting all your outbound and disallowing inbound, and if your decoupled passive nids is set up right you at least have the physical network layer covered. If you’re targeted for tailored exploitation then you’d be considering a scif anyway if you really have something that important to hide. In a pinch, a faraday cage would probably be a good idea if you can set it up right. Don’t trust any devices that come in or out.
  - oil25 7y ago
    > The poster was concerned about video being hacked. This would be hard to hide, at least for being owned in real-time, if one were keeping track of the packets coming and going. How would keeping track of packets detect a compromised web cam absolutely? An SSL-encrypted connection to Amazon servers, for example, could easily be used to exfiltrate pictures, audio and even low-bandwidth recordings while still blending in with typical, expected Web traffic.

rapind 7y ago

They aren't watching you. They're recording you. They're running algorithms to classify and index you. They're building massive data centers to house all of this semi organized and raw data. And when they leak it all they won't be held accountable because terrorists, children, and stuff. It's not a conspiracy theory. It's real and it's a black hat's wet dream. Oh yeah, they can use it for political purposes too I suppose. To silence dissent and all that.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
wallace_f 7y ago
Also -- and I swear I read thid in the NYTimes, but I can't find it -- CEOs are now not uncommonly ditching cellphones and laptops before going into important meetings. In a general sense, this sort of thing seems to have the potential to have incredible conseauences for liberty, justice, the economy and Western society.

monksy 7y ago

Ducktape man. That'll solve the problem.

A4ET8a8uTh0 7y ago

I think after Khashoggi's death the extent of surveillance could be evaluated based on the fact that US president had the option to review it. Guy was killed in a consulate in Turkey and, at the very least, US had audio ready to analyze.