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I found this amusing. >P.G.P., a free encryption program used by antinuclear activists and human rights groups to shield their files and emails from government
by Lerc 7mo ago
I found this amusing.
>P.G.P., a free encryption program used by antinuclear activists and human rights groups to shield their files and emails from government surveillance.
I find it fascinating to see how the users of a program change, based on how a reporter wants to build or diminish.
At least it's going in a positive direction today.
- 6thbit 7mo agothat's such a loaded statement.
- chii 7mo agoThis is the power of language. The bias is built into it.
- torben-friis 7mo ago>Water, a drink consumed by nobel price winners and European kings...
- Lerc 7mo agoOxygen, an element serial killers need in order to kill again.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- konfusinomicon 7mo ago[dead]
- MikeNotThePope 7mo agoNearly all air molecules were once part of a dinosaur fart.
- antimony51 7mo ago> Nearly all air molecules were once part of a dinosaur fart. While it is plausible that at least a handful of molecules (out of the sextillions) in a breath you take passed through a dinosaur, i don't think that qualifies at "Nearly all".
- fny 7mo agoDihydrogen monoxide - a constituent of many known toxic substances, diseases and disease-causing agents[0] [0]: https://www.dhmo.org/ https://www.dhmo.org/
- goodmythical 7mo agoI was alway taught that Adolf Hitler was a prevalent user of dihydrogen monoxide and refused to give it to his captives.
- dbt00 7mo agothousands of people die every year from DHMO toxicity, literal overdoses of DHMO, yet you can still find it in baby food and breast milk.
- wjessup 7mo ago100% of people who've ever had DHMO have died. This is scientifically verified and yet nobody does anything about it.
- hcknwscommenter 7mo agoI know this is a joke, but you did it wrong. There are obviously people (like me) who have had DHMO and are not dead. 100% of the people who have died have been exposed to DHMO.
- Alive-in-2025 7mo agoYou aren't fooling anyone, you know. http://montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Holy_Grail/Scene2.htm http://montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Holy_Grail/Scene2.htm
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- drdaeman 7mo ago> and yet nobody does anything about it So dismissive of all the transhumanist efforts to eradicate death!
- ssl-3 7mo agoWater? Like, from the toilet?
- echelon 7mo agoIt's what plants crave. (I needed to be able to post that to HN tonight.)
- nytesky 7mo agoVery on brand for our darkest timeline, if you excuse the mixed media metaphor.
- Topfi 7mo agoAh yes, the cautionary tale where the leadership is willing to accept their own faults, seeks out the most competent to solve their issue, despite initial reservations are willing to go with the suggestions provided and a public that, upon being provided evidence accepts it. Kinda hopeful, if one thinks about it, the Eugenics nonsense notwithstanding…
- ssl-3 7mo agoAt first, they had no plan. They tried to imprison their most competent person for being an outsider and being unable to pay their hospital bill at Carl's Jr, before making a public spectacle of working to kill him. They also consumed all of the french fries and burrito coverings, and were otherwise reduced to eating Flaturin -- "Hand-to-Mouth Goodness". Let us also not forget about the Great Trash Avalanche of 2506. It was only towards the very end that they came 'round to using water (from the toilet!) for crops, put the smart dude in charge, and they all lived happily ever after. Perhaps it'd have been a better fit if they actually killed the protagonist, Not Sure, and faded to black after the last edible plant was shown to wither and die. Maybe the end credits could have even included sepia-toned photos akin to those from the Siege of Leningrad, with slow Ken Burns-style layered pans and zooms documenting the peril. But, I mean: It was supposed to be a comedy. :)
- bambax 7mo ago
- sharperguy 7mo agoWater? You mean like out of the toilet?
- ognarb 7mo agoAnd nowadays, PGP technology is mostly used by the government and military. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also the case when Bitcoins was originally developed
- firesteelrain 7mo agoNever seen it. What parts? Do you mean PKI?
- bawolff 7mo ago[Citation needed] Seriously why would gov use pgp? They would be the last group i would expect to use something like PGP.
- ognarb 7mo agoSource: I worked two years on GnuPG, which is certified VS-NfD: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geheimhaltungsgrad https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geheimhaltungsgrad
- jazz9k 7mo ago"antinuclear activists and human rights groups to shield their files and emails from government surveillance" You mean the people responsible for not allowing us to embrace Nuclear 30 years before we should have?
- shimman 7mo agoYeah the weird thing about living in a democracy is you have to convince people who don't agree with you to do things. Maybe try better politics rather than attacks or else you'll go another 30 years of no nuclear power then die without realizing your dream of nearly free clean unlimited power.
- pitaj 7mo agoNuclear restrictions were instituted by beurocratic means, not democratic means.
- toyg 7mo agoIt depends on the country. In many, there were actual rounds of dedicated votes.
- Topfi 7mo agoIn Austria we put it to a vote. Right after building the first fission plant. We never switched it on after a narrow defeat. At least in our narrow case, the restrictions were exclusively democratic.
- shimman 7mo agoYes and who made up these bureaucrats and what regulations are they following? Who wrote those regulations? Who advocated for them? Who voted for them into law? Sorry but we still live in a democratic society, as much as Sam Altman would convince you otherwise. The buck stops at failing to convince those we entrust with power to make pro-nuclear regulations. Learn to organize better or continue failing at influencing society.
- phil21 7mo ago
- hbbio 7mo ago> I would ping him over the Signal app Signal, the free encryption app used by journalists
- Topfi 7mo agoSignal, an App predominantly used by governmental officials to leak war plans or bypass historical recording obligations.
- reincarnate0x14 7mo agoSignal, which shares its name with the propaganda publication of the Third Reich ...
- Theodores 7mo agoPGP was different then. In the 90s the internet was unencrypted and the only people using PGP were those that had a reasonable need for it. However, there were a couple of big problems that the armchair historian would not be aware of. First off, communicating with PGP was hard. Imagine you are based in London and you want to publish something controversial without getting taken to court. You could email someone in New York and ask them to post your 'hot potato of juiciness'. But, how to you exchange keys without the beloved five eyes seeing what you are up to? This was in an era when very little was encrypted, so anything encrypted would theoretically get flagged for the three letter agencies to take a look at. Again, this would depend on the person you are trying to reach, if they were working at the equivalent of 'the Iranian embassy' then yeah, good luck with that, you are going to get caught. The next problem was that PGP was doable for the three letter agencies using what amounts to WW2 Enigma tactics. In period it was possible for them to man-in-the-middle attack an email, to ask the PGP using sender to 'use the right key and resend'. The sender does as told, even with the same, as provided, public key. However, they just change their original message, maybe to remove a typo, change the date or add a friendly note. Then the three letter agency does a glorified 'diff' and they are subsequently in on the chat. PGP was originally treated as a 'munition' with export controls. People weren't using PGP for their Uber Eats and Amazon orders, as per the article, it was only anti-government people that needed PGP, that being Western 'five eyes' governments. Hence, even though it is a tedious NYT article, the author is right about PGP, in period. And, don't ask how I know about how PGP was hacked, there was a certain fog of war that went on at the time.
- mikeyouse 7mo agoI see your point, but PGP was literally invented by an anti-nuclear activist and intentionally disseminated to human rights groups.
- mapmeld 7mo agoThis section stood out to me because it started out explaining PGP to a layman like this, but then the author gets overly excited that a cryptographer would be interested in... basic cryptography > I’d learned enough by then to know that P.G.P. relies on public-key cryptography. So does Bitcoin. [...] > How interesting, I thought, that Mr. Back’s grad-school hobby involved the same cryptographic technique that Satoshi had repurposed.
- qnleigh 7mo agoWe also have this gem: > And Mr. Back’s thesis project focused on C++ — the same programming language Satoshi used to code the first version of the Bitcoin software. Amazing! I bet they both for loops too! I heard Bitcoin relies heavily on for loops. Infuriatingly, to people who don't know much about programming, these pieces of 'evidence' might sound quite compelling, because it will all sound equally obscure to them. I'm only a quarter of the way through this piece, but I'm finding it very hard to take seriously.
- Topfi 7mo agoThe leaps here would get one laughed out of an early 2k conspiracy forum.
- mapmeld 7mo agoIt's strange. I'm sure that he talked to experts who would immediately say, yes many programming languages exist. But two cryptographers who wrote money systems both using C++ is not informative. Today maybe we could expect one to use Rust.
- mikkupikku 7mo ago> I'm sure that he talked to experts A NYTimes journalist? I wouldn't bet on it. The experts might be smelly nerds, they'd cramp his style.
- bobanrocky 7mo agoWell .. you probably thought the same when John was unmasking Theranos
- fiskeben 7mo agoI think it's mind boggling that in 2026 encryption and signing of emails is still not a common thing, only because it's Google's business model to snoop on their users' email. For that reason we can't use email to send sensitive data and need apps for every little thing that could have been an email.
- elcritch 7mo agoAt the same time the dumps of government and corporate emails have been invaluable to society at large. They’ve helped win court cases, uncover corruption, etc.
- morgoo 7mo agoI found that entire section amusing. Some choice quotes: > So does Bitcoin. A Bitcoin user has two keys: a public key, from which an address is derived that acts as a digital safe deposit box; and a private key, which is the secret combination used to unlock that box and spend the coins it contains. > How interesting, I thought, that Mr. Back’s grad-school hobby involved the same cryptographic technique that Satoshi had repurposed. > And Mr. Back’s thesis project focused on C++ — the same programming language Satoshi used to code the first version of the Bitcoin software. public key encryption and c++! It must be him.
- triceratops 7mo ago> public key encryption and c++! It must be him. I'm now worried I've secretly been Satoshi the whole time. Lmao. I really expected better from the guy who unmasked Theranos.
- Rover222 7mo agoThe New York Times has some great journalists and does important work, but they certainly have an editorial bias/agenda on most topics, even though it's often subtle. People claiming they are neutral on most topics are just not seeing it, because it aligns with their slant. Just saying it's interesting to see when folks notice it or not on hackernews.
- eleveriven 7mo agoIt's technically true, but it's also a very selective framing