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Saying "encryption makes you a target" represents a lack of understanding for how spy agencies monitor all communications. It's not like spy agency analysts ta
by higherpurpose 11y ago
Saying "encryption makes you a target" represents a lack of understanding for how spy agencies monitor all communications.
It's not like spy agency analysts target only some people and when they are in their offices and see some encrypted traffic from someone they go: "AHA! This guy uses encryption - let's monitor his (encrypted) communications and his metadata!"
It's more like everyone's wide-open communications are monitored in real-time and automatically searched for keywords. Not using encryption makes you more exposed and vulnerable to mass surveillance, not less, because everything is exposed by default without encryption and everything is searched.
It doesn't matter whether you're plotting an attack or "only talking about cats (therefore they can't possibly be interested in what I'm saying!)". It doesn't work like that, because there isn't a human that does the automatic searching, but software.
To make it even simpler: it's like law enforcement saying "hmm, this guy put curtains on his windows - he must have something to hide! Let's watch him more closely to see where he's going when he leaves the house, and such"
vs
you going to law enforcement and giving them a daily report of what you've been doing, as well as full recordings of everything you talked about.
Which is worse?
- nraynaud 11y agoin that framework, consider that encryption is just a special keyword. And then they see that not a lot of people use it, then they have an opportunity to add just a bit more effort to those cases (maybe just storing the encrypted traffic), because there are so few.
- mahyarm 11y agoA lot of corporations use VPNs, and a bunch of them use them to connect to foreign offices. It's not as uncommon as you think.
- tomjen3 11y agoThat is okay. I stream Spotify through a VPN try to break that much traffic only to find my playlist.
- tajen 11y agoHow expensive is a VPN which lets you stream sevetal Gigs a month with good quality?
- rhizome 11y agoI haven't tried it, but the cheapest Digital Ocean droplet is US$10/mo. It's a raw (virtual) server you can install whatever you want on.
- tomjen3 11y agoPrivate Internet Access is insanely cheap. http://www.vpnfan.com/blog/private-internet-access-review/ http://www.vpnfan.com/blog/private-internet-access-review/
- linkregister 11y agoNot sure why @higherpurpose was downvoted, she or he described accurately the surveillance programs revealed by Ed, according to the leaked documents [1]. Of course we don't have the luxury of leaked French docs, but in the absence of data, we shouldn't automatically leap to the position supported by the least amount of evidence. [1] Selectors used: https://prod01-cdn00.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2014/03/selectors-1024x768.png https://prod01-cdn00.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/20...
- zurn 11y agoBecause the description was one sided and neglected to mention NSA's VPN related activities. Eg that they actively seek to discover and keep track of VPN users. And that traffic analysis is generally as powerful as content inspection once you have a target.
- linkregister 11y agoHmm, I didn't read that one. Can you point me to the source for that?
- zurn 11y agoSure: http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/workspace/nsa-xkeyscore-vpn-cracking-123499 http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/workspace/nsa-xkeyscore-vpn-... http://www.hacker10.com/internet-anonymity/secret-documents-show-the-nsa-is-spying-on-vpn-users/ http://www.hacker10.com/internet-anonymity/secret-documents-...
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]