Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

I read that today in FYEOExpress. First, the reportage on the *legal* NSA wiretapping inspires terrorists to use harder to track pre-paid phones, now VoIP calls (which they use a *lot*) will be encrypted, for free! I love when the 'privacy' lobby puts self-interest so far in front of common sense that they can't see beyond their smug self-satisfaction. Yes, keep our agencies from listening to our calls!

[sarcasm]I feel so much safer now.[/sarcasm]

1 posted on 04/12/2006 12:45:57 PM PDT by teddyruxpin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies ]


To: teddyruxpin
"PGP doesn't stop the police or intel people from reading encrypted email, but it does slow them down. Zfone, however, uses stronger encryption"

So...how are wiretaps impossible? Of course they could always get a warrant and have no delays.
2 posted on 04/12/2006 12:50:54 PM PDT by tfecw (It's for the children)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin

Just you wait till they start using telepathy. No trail whatsoever.


3 posted on 04/12/2006 12:52:06 PM PDT by GSlob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin
Phone Taps Just Got Impossible

But phone reveille is still acceptable, right?

8 posted on 04/12/2006 1:01:09 PM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin

Not much of a story really. It is going to happen eventually. Point to point encryption for all types of communication is going to become normal.

I'm all for it. Sure, it gives some tools to the enemy who will probably be early adopters, but the very act of using such encryption should single them out from all the clear traffic. As for the information gathering tools we'd lose, new ones will arise. We can't freeze the enemy to using certain tools, and we can't limit ourselves eithers. With the breaking of the story of the wire tapping, the terrorists gained valuable intelligence on how we were disrupting their operations. They're already adapting, and now we have to find and adapt to them.

Information doesn't exist in a vacuum. If the terrorists are passing information through digital means, somewhere that information is unencrypted. Given that encrypted traffic can be sniffed for, tracked, rerouted - the terrorists may just discover that encrypted communications can reveal their agents, expose their agents, or may just be unreliable.

Oh, maybe not yet... But give our people time to work on the problem. I'm sure they'll figure out a way to accomplish the mission. It is a bastard of an inconvenience, but it was bound to happen.


13 posted on 04/12/2006 1:06:44 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; ...

14 posted on 04/12/2006 1:09:31 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin

"I love when the 'privacy' lobby puts self-interest so far in front of common sense that they can't see beyond their smug self-satisfaction."

The right of Americans to be left alone by the government unless they are doing something illegal is fundamental to the American way of life.


17 posted on 04/12/2006 1:14:11 PM PDT by gondramB (Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin

Zimmerman is a terrorist enabler.


23 posted on 04/12/2006 1:17:23 PM PDT by balch3
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin
In my own VoIP setup there is a huge hole for a security agency to tap calls, even if the packets were encoded. I have a bridge to a regular 900 mhz cordless phone (with a weak encryption, I believe), so all the NSA has to do is park outside my door and listen to the radio transmissions (it would be pretty boring job). If I were using a headset instead, they would have to get a little more sophisticated and listen to the weak RF the mic radiates.
31 posted on 04/12/2006 1:25:29 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin

bump


41 posted on 04/12/2006 1:35:30 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Every man must be tempted, sometimes,to hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin

Sounds downright excellent. I'll have to download it and check it out.


47 posted on 04/12/2006 1:57:45 PM PDT by zeugma (Anybody who says XP is more secure than OS X or Linux has been licking toads.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin
There's no immediate solution for this problem, unless Phil Zimmermann has provided a back door in Zfone for the intel folks. That is unlikely, but at least possible.

No, pretty much impossible given the fact that Zimmerman is firmly on the side of privacy and is a well-known and respected cryptographer.

Still, this is nothing really new. It's an update of his old program PGPfone that let people make secure 'net phone calls before VOIP became popular.

PGP doesn't stop the police or intel people from reading encrypted email, but it does slow them down.

So we establish that the author really doesn't know what he's talking about. Depending on your configuration, yeah it'll slow them down, probably until after you die of old age. The opinion of the professional cryptographic community is that even the NSA probably does not have the resources to crack a well set-up PGP.

However, that doesn't count the use of key loggers, etc., to gain access to the passphrases or other means of circumventing PGP.

I feel so much safer now.

... from my government.

50 posted on 04/12/2006 2:02:33 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin
I love when the 'privacy' lobby puts self-interest so far in front of common sense that they can't see beyond their smug self-satisfaction. Yes, keep our agencies from listening to our calls!

PGP allows private conversations to make it out out Communist/repressive regimes, and various other legitimate uses. Encryption protects your BANK accounts, credit cards, financial transactions with the Fed, sensitive personal data etc. As with any technology, it can be abused.

I use PGP every day. and if the government can crack multiple layers of 4096bit keys, more power to them.

51 posted on 04/12/2006 2:06:14 PM PDT by 4CJ (Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito, qua tua te fortuna sinet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin
On 911, the force that killed the most people in the terrorist attacks was gravity.

It's unfortunate that the terrorists have access to gravity, but I don't blame the guy who invented gravity for the deaths.

53 posted on 04/12/2006 2:16:04 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin

Oh, cool. I always liked PGP.


67 posted on 04/12/2006 3:50:45 PM PDT by Publius Valerius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin
Phone related BTTT

Cheers,

knewshound

Brew Your Own
70 posted on 04/12/2006 3:54:15 PM PDT by knews_hound (When Blogs are Outlawed, only Outlaws will have Blogs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin
Yes, keep our agencies from listening to our calls!

A decade ago there was a debate about whether encryption technologies that didn't have a government-approved backdoor should be banned. Al Gore and John Ashcroft were on opposing sides of the issue. Guess whose side you're on.

72 posted on 04/12/2006 4:02:16 PM PDT by ThinkDifferent (Chloe rocks)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

To: teddyruxpin

Well, this should piss off Ted the swimmer and mortician Harry because it removes one of their favorite bush bashing topics!


95 posted on 04/15/2006 8:08:48 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson