Tag: Your Government Doesn’t Love You

What Laws Actually Entail

I often wonder if people really know what they’re saying when they say “There ought to be a law.” In their heads I’m sure they believe that they’re saying that a specific type of behavior is wrong or dangerous and must be curtailed. What they’re actually saying is that they want costume-clad men with guns and liability shields to inflict violence against anybody who performs said behavior.

For example, when people said there ought to be law requiring cyclists to have lights when riding at night they probably though they were saying that riding a bike at night without a light is dangerous. What they actually said was that people riding a bike without a light should result in K9 units and police helicopters being deployed and dogs being shot:

Deputies tell us they attempted to stop a suspect on a bicycle outside of the Dollar General store on Gunnery Road for riding without a light. That’s when the suspect ran away from deputies.

A helicopter and K9 unit were called in to help search for the suspect. While tracking the suspect in a wooded area, a K9 unit was attacked by an unleashed Pit bull. That’s when a deputy in pursuit shot the Pit bull.

When laws are passed police are given orders to use whatever force is available to them to stop anybody who breaks said law. It doesn’t matter how minor the offense is. Something insignificant as selling an untaxed cigarettes can escalate to deadly force when the act is declared illegal.

Neocon Quest, My Proposal for a Video Game

Every since I was young I’ve always wanted to make a video game. Unfortunately my skills in the art department are nil so it never happened. But from time to time I still like to come up with ideas for games. My latest idea is Neocon Quest. In it you will play a neocon politicians who has just been elected to a city council or a boarder town, which is your first step on the way to the presidency.

The first stage will be similar to SimCity except you’re not building the city. Instead you are using your position on the city council to extract taxes from the populace in order to build a wall along the boarder and to attract several large companies involved in the military-industrial complex.

Stage two will continue from there. With the wall build and military-industrial complex firmly cemented you move on to dealing with social issues. Namely you must run out everybody who isn’t a white straight cisgender Christian conservative or a Jewish individual with ties to Israel.

Once you’ve accomplished that goal you’re ready for the House of Representatives! Once you’re a representative your task is to secure funding for a multi-billion dollar fighter jet that cannot reliably fly, provide oxygen to the pilot, or fire its main gun due to a software glitch.

I’m still thinking about the middle stages but eventually you become the commander in chief! From here the game will begin to play similar to Command and Conquer. You will be tasked with building a military base in a nondescript Middle Eastern country. In addition to building a base you must also harvest resources (oil) and build a war machine to take on the local opposition. The opposition won’t have a base, a military, or the ability to harvest resources. What the opposition will have are AK-47s, improvised explosive devices, and the home field advantage. Victory isn’t achieved by killing all of the opposition units (it has infinite units) but by earning propaganda point. Propaganda points are acquired by killing opposition units, which also helps it recruit new units and thus increases its numbers, and by covering up the atrocities committed by your soldiers.

Obviously this is just the beginning of a much larger idea but I wanted to toss it out there because I think other people may have valuable input.

Encryption Works Except When It Doesn’t

People are still debating whether Edward Snowden is a traitor deserving a cage next to Chelsey Manning or a hero deserving praise (hint, unless you believe the latter you’re wrong). But a benefit nobody can deny is the overall improvement to computer security his actions have lead to. In addition to more people using cryptographic tools we are also getting a better idea of what tools work and what tools don’t work:

The NSA also has “major” problems with Truecrypt, a program for encrypting files on computers. Truecrypt’s developers stopped their work on the program last May, prompting speculation about pressures from government agencies. A protocol called Off-the-Record (OTR) for encrypting instant messaging in an end-to-end encryption process also seems to cause the NSA major problems. Both are programs whose source code can be viewed, modified, shared and used by anyone. Experts agree it is far more difficult for intelligence agencies to manipulate open source software programs than many of the closed systems developed by companies like Apple and Microsoft. Since anyone can view free and open source software, it becomes difficult to insert secret back doors without it being noticed. Transcripts of intercepted chats using OTR encryption handed over to the intelligence agency by a partner in Prism — an NSA program that accesses data from at least nine American internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple — show that the NSA’s efforts appear to have been thwarted in these cases: “No decrypt available for this OTR message.” This shows that OTR at least sometimes makes communications impossible to read for the NSA.

Things become “catastrophic” for the NSA at level five – when, for example, a subject uses a combination of Tor, another anonymization service, the instant messaging system CSpace and a system for Internet telephony (voice over IP) called ZRTP. This type of combination results in a “near-total loss/lack of insight to target communications, presence,” the NSA document states.

[…]

Also, the “Z” in ZRTP stands for one of its developers, Phil Zimmermann, the same man who created Pretty Good Privacy, which is still the most common encryption program for emails and documents in use today. PGP is more than 20 years old, but apparently it remains too robust for the NSA spies to crack. “No decrypt available for this PGP encrypted message,” a further document viewed by SPIEGEL states of emails the NSA obtained from Yahoo.

So TrueCrypt, OTR, PGP, and ZRTP are all solid protocols to utilize if you want to make the National Security Agency’s (NSA) job of spying on you more difficult. It’s actually fascinating to see that PGP has held up so long. The fact that TrueCrypt is giving the NSA trouble makes the statement of its insecurity issued by the developers more questionable. And people can finally stop claiming that Tor isn’t secure due to the fact it started off as a government project. But all is not well in the world of security. There are some things the NSA has little trouble bypassing:

Even more vulnerable than VPN systems are the supposedly secure connections ordinary Internet users must rely on all the time for Web applications like financial services, e-commerce or accessing webmail accounts. A lay user can recognize these allegedly secure connections by looking at the address bar in his or her Web browser: With these connections, the first letters of the address there are not just http — for Hypertext Transfer Protocol — but https. The “s” stands for “secure”. The problem is that there isn’t really anything secure about them.

[…]

One example is virtual private networks (VPN), which are often used by companies and institutions operating from multiple offices and locations. A VPN theoretically creates a secure tunnel between two points on the Internet. All data is channeled through that tunnel, protected by cryptography. When it comes to the level of privacy offered here, virtual is the right word, too. This is because the NSA operates a large-scale VPN exploitation project to crack large numbers of connections, allowing it to intercept the data exchanged inside the VPN — including, for example, the Greek government’s use of VPNs. The team responsible for the exploitation of those Greek VPN communications consisted of 12 people, according to an NSA document SPIEGEL has seen.

How the NSA is able to bypass VPN and HTTPS is still in question. I’m guessing the NSA’s ability to break HTTPS depends on how it’s implemented. Many sites, including ones such as Paypal, fail to implement HTTPS in a secure manner. This may be an attempt to maintain backward compatibility with older systems or it may be incompetence. Either way they certainly make the NSA’s job easier. VPN, likewise, may be implementation dependent. Most VPN software is fairly complex, which makes configuring it in a secure manner difficult. Like HTTPS, it’s easy to put up a VPN server that’s not secure.

The ultimate result of this information is that the tools we rely on will become more secure as people address the weaknesses being exploited by the NSA. Tools that cannot be improved will be replaced. Regardless of your personal feelins about Edward Snowden’s actions you must admit that they are making the Internet more secure.

Soon Central Banking Failures Will Be Our Fault

The state is the undisputed champion of passing the buck. Whenever it fucks up it finds a way to blame the people. Did the politicians screw up the economy? That’s our fault for voting them in! Is your local police department out of control? You voted for the sheriff! There isn’t enough money circulating throughout the economy? What do you expect when people save hoard money? Accumulated debt is causing chaos in the banking system? Obviously people aren’t saving enough money!

Now the Bank of England is setting itself up to blame the people for arbitrarily set interest rates not bringing prosperity:

According to Sky News, the world’s eighth oldest bank will now assess the frequency of job searches and monitor prices online to understand potential unemployment rates and monitor inflation. It will also gauge language used on social networks to better understand the state of some financial markets. It’s another example of the shift towards “big data,” where companies collect and analyse huge sets of digital data rather than use traditional database techniques to detect patterns as they happen. The Bank of England says it used these techniques to help impose new controls on the housing market earlier in the year, and hopes this “big shift from the past” will help it better judge Britain’s financial status in the future.

Inflation will now be our fault because we sent the wrong signals over our social media feeds! Isn’t the state brilliant? There’s nothing it can’t blame on somebody else.

Police Finally Told to Act as They Always Should Have Been

With the recent wave of opposition to the violent gangs commonly referred to as police many departments are finally telling their officers to act like they always should have been:

Police around the nation have gone on high alert, told by higher-ups and union representatives to wear bulletproof vests, keep off social media and make arrests only in cases most pressing and crucial to the safety of the public at large.

Emphasis mine. Assuming we’re happy living in a society where a handful of individuals hold power over everybody else, the handful of individuals tasked with oppressing everybody else should refrain from kidnapping unless it is absolutely necessary to protect people. If this recent surge of protests accomplishes nothing else, and assuming police officers actually begin heeding this advice (which they won’t), they will finally be doing what they should have been doing all along. I find it funny how this is considered a dire circumstance by so many officers. That really says everything there is to say.

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

Sony, in what I predict to be a brilliant marketing move, has cancelled what was certainly going to be a shitty movie. This has gotten the expected, and likely desired, result of unleashing a great deal of impotent Internet rage. Not one to let a crisis go to waste the politicians in Washington DC are swooping in like vultures. First United States officials claimed that the hack was almost certainly performed by North Korea. Now senators are using that claim to justify the necessity of a “cyber security” (a meaningless term) bill:

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) also said that the choice set a “troubling precedent” in cyberwarfare. “The administration’s failure to deter our adversaries has emboldened, and will continue to embolden, those seeking to harm the United States through cyberspace,” he said in a statement. He reiterated promises to focus on the issue if elected chair of the Armed Services Committee, including plans to create a subcommittee for cybersecurity issues. “Congress as a whole must also address these issues and finally pass long-overdue comprehensive cybersecurity legislation,” he said. McCain has been pushing cybersecurity bills for years, including the Secure IT Act, a competitor to the controversial CISPA bill.

In a statement on Tuesday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), a major proponent of cybersecurity and author of multiple bills, said that “this is only the latest example of the need for serious legislation to improve the sharing of information between the private sector and the government to help companies strengthen cybersecurity. We must pass an information sharing bill as quickly as possible next year.”

There are three points I would like to bring up.

First, there is no evidence that North Korea was involved in the Sony hack. All we have are statements made by United States officials. Remember that United States officials also told us that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Second, the reason people like McCain and Feinstein want to pass a “cyber security” bill is because it would further enable private corporations, the same private corporations that currently possess a great deal of your personal information, to share data with the federal government without facing the possibility of legal liability. What members of Congress are referring to as “cyber security” bills are more accurately called surveillance bills.

Third, legislation won’t improve computer security. No matter how many “cyber security” bills are passed the fact of the matter is that bills are merely words on pieces of paper and words on pieces of paper have no ability to effect the world by themselves. What you need are experts in computer security doing their job and that is done by enticing them with rewards (often referred to as paying them) for utilizing their skills. Legislation doesn’t do that, markets do. The only thing legislation does is state who the state will send armed thugs after if their desires are not properly met.

The Dangers of Being a Cop

With all of the recent reports of police abuse there has been a notable amount of backlash against police officers. The tough on crime crowd has been pointing out that cops have a dangerous job and they’re right. At any point an officer could be required to put himself at risk of a heart attack by having to physically exert him or herself to chase down a perp:

Their job is to protect and serve – but it seems some police officers interpret this as an excuse to enjoy too many extra servings at the lunch table.

A study has revealed US cops have the highest rates of obesity among any profession in the country.

Along with firefighters and security guards, nearly 41 per cent of boys in blue are obese, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

This probably explains why cops are so quick to use deadly force. There’s no way many of them could possibly chase down a perp so they have to resort to the only tool that can, their sidearm.

And for those wondering the answer is yes. I’m more than willing to go for the easy fat joke when it’s against members of violent gangs.

The Privacy Dangers of Body Camera Equipped Police

I’ve been how ineffective body cameras on police will be but after seeing some of the things posted by my friend Kurtis Hannah I am now convinced that they will also bring a new wave of surveillance and privacy violations.

We already live in a world where much of our activity is recorded by cameras. Department stores, gas stations, hospitals, and pretty much everywhere else employ security cameras. While I don’t like all being recorded at these places I also acknowledge that they won’t send men with guns after me unless I’ve done something legitimately bad in most cases (because that’s usually the only time the footage is reviewed). Police footage, especially in this day and age where the National Security Agency (NSA) already has a massive surveillance apparatus, could be employed differently. It’s not unimaginable that police departments would employ people to review all footage from body cameras to find potential criminal offenses that the officer missed. Such a large amount of footage could also enable police to track individuals by using facial recognition software against body camera footage. That wouldn’t be unprecedented since many departments already do something similar with automatic license plate scanners.

This puts us in a really bad spot. On the one hand we cannot trust the police to go about their activities unsupervised. Having their actions recorded at all times while they’re on duty and streaming that footage live for anybody to access at any point is the only way any semblance of accountability can exist. But doing that will also violate the privacy of anybody within camera shot of an officer.

What’s the solution? In my opinion the only viable solution is to toss out the entire institution of modern policing and replace it with something better. That something better will have to be decentralized by nature and not in any way associated with the state, which seems impossible to implement today due to the controlling nature of today’s state. But until that happens there will be no accountability and the only “solutions” offered to us will be ones that better enable the police to keep us under their boots.

Happy Birthday Chelsea Manning

Although I know she’ll not see this on account of the fact that she’s rotting in a cage for informing us of American war crimes I still want to take a moment in joining people in wishing Chelsea Manning a happy 27th birthday.

Without her bravery we may have never learned about some of the war crimes being perpetrated by the United States military. But her plight is also a reminder that the state, not matter how transparent it claims to be, does not like it when people air its dirty laundry. Although it seems doubtful maybe someday there will be a president in office that will pardon her. Or maybe a group of people will get together and come up with a workable plan to break Chelsea out of her cage. Anybody who managed to do that would be heroes in my book.

Al Fraken Suddenly Cares About Privacy

When the government is caught spying on people it’s quick to justify its actions as being necessary for national security. But when private companies, at least ones not tied to the state’s own surveillance apparatus, spy on people the state claims it’s a tragedy. I’m not a fan of spying regardless of who’s doing it but I also can’t stand hypocrisy. Al Franken, one of Minnesota’s two psychotic senators, has a bug up his ass over Uber. I can only imagine that the company hasn’t been willing to become a full member of the state’s surveillance apparatus because Franken has been coming down on it hard:

For the last month the senator has pressed the company to be more transparent and accountable in how it handles the data associated with its burgeoning number of passengers around the world.

“My biggest concern is that they seem to have no policy,” said Franken, who chairs a subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. “They have all this very sensitive data and they seem to have absolutely no real privacy policy.”

This is rich coming from a man who defended the National Security Agency’s (NSA) widespread surveillance of Americans. If anybody has been collecting very sensitive data without any privacy police it’s the NSA. And while I don’t trust Uber with the data it collects I at least know it’s not collecting things like my phones calls, e-mails, and other communications. Perhaps Franken should first invest time in writing up a privacy police for the NSA and then deal with the smaller fish like Uber. At least then he wouldn’t sounds like such a hypocrite.