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My initial thought was "this should be illegal" - but if there's no market for exploits, security will remain poor. So, this sort of business is a bump on the r

My initial thought was "this should be illegal" - but if there's no market for exploits, security will remain poor. So, this sort of business is a bump on the road to global security, which I have some hope we're heading towards. Either way, an exploit market is a grimy business, basically war profiteering. I wonder who is off-limits to sell to - certainly the Iranians, but who else, and who decides who is evil and who is good? People will die from some of these sales. I think we'll see pervasive encryption and P2P (blockchain-based) applications that will push back tyranny a bit. There will be technological solutions to things like secret legal proceedings and warrantless wiretaps. And by pushing computation back out to decentralized nodes, there won't be such juicy targets to attack.

dmethvin 12y ago
> "this should be illegal" Governments define legality, and governments are likely to be some of Mitnick's best clients. Funny thing is, if I were Iran's government I would be concerned about buying exploits there because for all I know Mitnick has double-crossed me and given the US government info on the exploit and how to neutralize or detect it. Pervasive encryption only helps if the endpoints doing the encryption aren't compromised, and this type of service is aimed at those endpoints.
- andrewljohnson 12y ago
  * Governments also enter into treaties to define international law. * We need less endpoints in general. You can imagine a blockchain-based encrypted email system, which could not be tapped, pen-registered, and the government would have to issue a subpoena to actual users to see data.
- apetresc 12y ago
  That's irrelevant. Governments are in the habit of doing lots of things that would be illegal for me and you to do. For example, jail systems can exist while it's still illegal for me to keep people locked up in my basement.

dmethvin 12y ago

> "this should be illegal" Governments define legality, and governments are likely to be some of Mitnick's best clients. Funny thing is, if I were Iran's government I would be concerned about buying exploits there because for all I know Mitnick has double-crossed me and given the US government info on the exploit and how to neutralize or detect it. Pervasive encryption only helps if the endpoints doing the encryption aren't compromised, and this type of service is aimed at those endpoints.

andrewljohnson 12y ago
* Governments also enter into treaties to define international law. * We need less endpoints in general. You can imagine a blockchain-based encrypted email system, which could not be tapped, pen-registered, and the government would have to issue a subpoena to actual users to see data.
apetresc 12y ago
That's irrelevant. Governments are in the habit of doing lots of things that would be illegal for me and you to do. For example, jail systems can exist while it's still illegal for me to keep people locked up in my basement.