4 ms·

It really saddens me that so much resources are devoted to destroying the world's security. It stands to reason that all of their research efforts will inevitab

by ihsw 13y ago

It really saddens me that so much resources are devoted to destroying the world's security. It stands to reason that all of their research efforts will inevitably be leaked out to the general populace, and at that point we will be in a World of Shit. It will be like antibiotics suddenly becoming useless, but instead encryption suddenly becoming useless. It's not about spying anymore, it's about manipulating the world to meet your needs. And it's getting easier for them to do their job and harder for us to keep our freedom -- the surveillance-industrial complex is gaining momentum because it's the new "air superiority." The cost is so fantastically low that it's foolish for military institutions -- be it sovereign or otherwise -- it's foolish for them to not invest in their own surveillance infrastructure. If there's anything the world's governments can agree on with regards to ubiquitous gigabit fibre, it's one thing: surveillance will definitely be easier and cheaper.

cinquemb 13y ago
If things stay as they are, things will be easier and cheaper. But things never stay the same, and even for their needs, crypto won't suddenly become useless (maybe the kind that relies on central parties, but people who take this stuff seriously probably don't rely on the "we promise we wont look at your key generation" in their threat models, and look, even AFRICOM uses Chinese satellites[0] which I'm sure numerous of SIGINT folks had to give their ok for, right?). And there are things on the horizon like meshnets[1] that should prove to bring more challenges for governments (and private contractors/companies) that seek to tap backbones, DIY cellphones[2] that bypass coercive governments who sweet talk org/corps, and cheap drones that can be controlled by gestures of potential targets at the disposal of the masses[3] that enable crowd-sourced data collection and attack vectors previously not available to the common man. Also, impromptu DoD initiatives[4], don't make me think things are as asymmetric as most people may think. [0] http://blog.heritage.org/2013/05/07/american-military-communications-should-not-be-running-over-chinese-satellites/ http://blog.heritage.org/2013/05/07/american-military-commun... [1] http://forum.chimeshnet.com/ http://forum.chimeshnet.com/ [2] http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2182 http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2182 [3] http://startupdestiny.com/2013/11/19/why-i-hacked-an-ar-drone-with-leap-motion-and-node-js-part-1-of-2/ http://startupdestiny.com/2013/11/19/why-i-hacked-an-ar-dron... [4] http://www.zyn.com/sbir/sbres/sbir/dod/darpa/darpasb133-002.htm http://www.zyn.com/sbir/sbres/sbir/dod/darpa/darpasb133-002....

by ihsw 13y ago

cinquemb 13y ago

If things stay as they are, things will be easier and cheaper. But things never stay the same, and even for their needs, crypto won't suddenly become useless (maybe the kind that relies on central parties, but people who take this stuff seriously probably don't rely on the "we promise we wont look at your key generation" in their threat models, and look, even AFRICOM uses Chinese satellites[0] which I'm sure numerous of SIGINT folks had to give their ok for, right?). And there are things on the horizon like meshnets[1] that should prove to bring more challenges for governments (and private contractors/companies) that seek to tap backbones, DIY cellphones[2] that bypass coercive governments who sweet talk org/corps, and cheap drones that can be controlled by gestures of potential targets at the disposal of the masses[3] that enable crowd-sourced data collection and attack vectors previously not available to the common man. Also, impromptu DoD initiatives[4], don't make me think things are as asymmetric as most people may think. [0] http://blog.heritage.org/2013/05/07/american-military-communications-should-not-be-running-over-chinese-satellites/ http://blog.heritage.org/2013/05/07/american-military-commun... [1] http://forum.chimeshnet.com/ http://forum.chimeshnet.com/ [2] http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2182 http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2182 [3] http://startupdestiny.com/2013/11/19/why-i-hacked-an-ar-drone-with-leap-motion-and-node-js-part-1-of-2/ http://startupdestiny.com/2013/11/19/why-i-hacked-an-ar-dron... [4] http://www.zyn.com/sbir/sbres/sbir/dod/darpa/darpasb133-002.htm http://www.zyn.com/sbir/sbres/sbir/dod/darpa/darpasb133-002....