Tag: Your Government Doesn’t Love You

Bill Gates Sides With The FBI

Microsoft has always enjoy a cozy relationship with the State. This isn’t surprising to anybody who has paid attention to Bill Gates and his ongoing love affair with the State. It’s also not surprising that he is siding with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) against Apple:

Technology companies should be forced to cooperate with law enforcement in terrorism investigations, Gates said, according to a Financial Times story posted late Monday.

“This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case,” he said.

This statement by Gates is laughable. The FBI is demanding Apple create a custom signed version of iOS that doesn’t include several security features and includes builtin software to brute force the decryption key set by the user. That is not a general thing for a particular case, that’s a general tool that can used on many iPhones.

What is funny about this though is that Bill Gates tried to backpedal but in so doing only said exactly the same thing over again:

In an interview with Bloomberg, Bill Gates says he was “disappointed” by reports that he supported the FBI in its legal battle with Apple, saying “that doesn’t state my view on this.”

Still, Gates took a more moderate stance than some of his counterparts in the tech industry, not fully backing either the FBI or Apple but calling for a broader “discussion” on the issues. “I do believe that with the right safeguards, there are cases where the government, on our behalf — like stopping terrorism, which could get worse in the future — that that is valuable.” But he called for “striking [a] balance” between safeguards against government power and security.

Any “balance” would require Apple to create firmware that includes a backdoor for government use. In other words, it would require exactly what the FBI is demanding of Apple.

Cryptography is math and math belongs to that very small category of things that are either black or white. Either the cryptography you’re using is effective and only allows authorized parties to access the unencrypted content or it is ineffective. There is no middle ground. You cannot break cryptography just a little bit.

Although the existence of a version of iOS with a backdoor is frightening in of itself, the idea that a single judge can enslave software developers by issuing a writ is terrifying. That’s an aspect of this case that is getting glossed over a lot. Apple has already publicly stated it has no desire to write a weakened version of iOS. If the court sides with the FBI it will try to force Apple to write software against its will. Why should any individual have the power to legally do that?

The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership Strike Again

As a history buff Ancestry.com has always interested me. I’d love to trace back my family lineage. But the public-private surveillance partnership has held me back.

I figured it was only a matter of time until government agents began demanding genetic records from services like Ancestry.com and 23andMe. Once again my paranoia turned out to be prophetic (not because I’m so smart but because it was so bloody obvious):

Now, five years later, when 23andMe and Ancestry both have over a million customers, those warnings are looking prescient. “Your relative’s DNA could turn you into a suspect,” warns Wired, writing about a case from earlier this year, in which New Orleans filmmaker Michael Usry became a suspect in an unsolved murder case after cops did a familial genetic search using semen collected in 1996. The cops searched an Ancestry.com database and got a familial match to a saliva sample Usry’s father had given years earlier. Usry was ultimately determined to be innocent and the Electronic Frontier Foundation called it a “wild goose chase” that demonstrated “the very real threats to privacy and civil liberties posed by law enforcement access to private genetic databases.”

[…]

Both Ancestry.com and 23andMe stipulate in their privacy policies that they will turn information over to law enforcement if served with a court order. 23andMe says it’s received a couple of requests from both state law enforcement and the FBI, but that it has “successfully resisted them.”

As a general rule I’m wary of any service that collects information the State wouldn’t normally have. I know any personal information collected on me by a service provider is a single court order away from being in the hands of the State.

This is a problem many libertarians fail to fully realize. They make a stark distinction between corporate and government surveillance and fail to realize the former becomes the latter at the whim of a judge. If it wasn’t for the State’s power to obtain private records I wouldn’t be as concerned with corporate surveillance since companies aren’t in a habit of sending armed goons to my door to shoot my dog and kidnap me.

Political Campaigns Suck At Protecting Your Personal Information

I don’t need more reasons to abandon politics but I realize others do. To that end I feel that it’s important to point out the abysmal security record of political campaigns:

Over the last three months, more than 100 million US voters have had their data exposed online. These data breaches weren’t caused by a sophisticated hack or malware. Instead, political campaigns’ abysmal cybersecurity practices are to blame. Although modern campaigns constantly acquire and purchase massive amounts of data, they often neglect to fully beef up security surrounding it, effectively turning the campaigns into sitting ducks — huge operations with databases left open and vulnerable.

[…]

That might be unsettling, but perhaps more troubling is the fact that political campaigns are terrible at cybersecurity. Not only do the organizations have access to more information than ever before, they’re not able to keep it safe. The incentives to do so just don’t exist, and that’s why we’re seeing so much compromised voter data.

In Iowa last month, the state’s Republican party failed to adequately protect a database containing information on 2 million voters, making it readily available through just a basic scan of the website’s source code. In December, an independent security researcher uncovered a publicly available database of 191 million voter records. Included in that trove was each voter’s full name, home address, mailing address, unique voter ID, state voter ID, gender, date of birth, phone number, date of registration, political affiliation, and voter history since 2000.

I’ve mentioned these sorts of issues to friends before but they always hid behind the “I give campaigns a fake phone number” excuse. But the phone number you gave to a campaign isn’t what’s getting out, it’s your real personal information including your home address.

Politics is continuing to become more polarizing in this country. Both parties have become religions where disagreements with the party being tantamount to heresy. True believers are often willing to shun former friends and family members. Some employers are even willing to avoid hiring or terminating employees based on their form of political worship. There are no signs indicating this trend will cease or reverse so your voting record could become a major problem in the near future.

The amount of personal information many campaigns have on individuals is rather shocking. It’s often enough information for people with access to commit acts of identify theft.

There really isn’t anything to gain for political participation and there’s a lot to lose. Control over your personal information is one of the things you could potentially lose. My advise is to avoid politics since it’s obvious campaigns have no interest in protecting you.

Is That A Bitcoin In Your Pocket

Considering the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) achieved a 95 percent failure rate it’s not surprising this happened:

The TSA attempted to “screen” airline passenger Davi Barker for the virtual currency Bitcoin.

Barker is co-founder of BitcoinNotBombs, a Bitcoin advocacy group that gets donation-based organizations and social entrepreneurs set up to handle the currency. He’s written a very detailed telling of what happened right here. After going through security (he opted out of the body scanner but was successfully cleared through the checkpoint), two people stopped him, and it got uncomfortable quickly.

What next? Will some random TSA goon demand to see the Transportation Layer Security (TLS) certificate in your briefcase?

The agency’s 95 percent failure rate makes a lot of sense when stories like this keep popping up in the news. When your agents are so clueless that they harass passengers after seeing something entirely imaginary there’s little hope that they’ll catch any of the real dangers.

Legalizing Slavery

The United States has a long history of slavery. Since the very beginning of this country through the end of the Civil War black individuals could be owned as slaves in many states. After that the rules were changed. Private ownership of slaves was deemed illegal (a very good thing) but the State gave itself permission to enslave anybody it arbitrarily labeled as a criminal (a very bad thing). Eventually the process was streamlined and Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) was created so manage the federally owned slaves. Individual states used this precedence to establish their own government owned corporations to managed their slaves.

Now a congressman is looking to change the rules yet again by expanding the State’s ability to own slaves. If passed, this bill will allow the State to enslave anybody by issuing a simple court order:

Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, reportedly will introduce legislation soon to criminalize a company’s refusal to aid decryption efforts as part of a governmental investigation. The news was first reported Thursday afternoon by the Wall Street Journal.

Aiding decryption efforts requires labor. In the San Bernardino case the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is order Apple to create a custom version of iOS that removes several key security features. Apple has refused and it has every right to do so because nobody should be compelled into performing labor against their will. If the FBI wants the phone unlocked so badly it can either put in the effort itself or hire somebody willing to try.

We’re living in interesting times. The State is seeing less and less reason to conceal its intentions.

The Party Of Fascism

I believe that getting into bed with social conservatives was one of the worst things to happen to libertarianism. Now that election season is upon us I’m reminded of this every day. Self-proclaimed libertarians are openly declaring their support for Republican frontrunners that continue to remind us that their interests aligned with fascism, not libertarianism.

The recent kerfuffle between Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is yet another demonstration of this. Using the All Writs Act, a federal court is trying to make literal slaves out of Apple’s iOS developers. Anybody who subscribed to even very basic libertarian principles would oppose this order. But a fascist, whose loyalty is to the State above all else, would support. So where does Donald Trump stand?

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump is insisting that Apple unlock the iPhone of one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack.

[…]

Trump disagreed stridently on Wednesday, calling it a matter of “common sense.”

“I agree 100 percent with the courts,” the business mogul said. “In that case, we should open it up. I think security over all — we have to open it up, and we have to use our heads. We have to use common sense.”

Donald believes Apple’s software developers are property of the State and should be compelled to write software. Let’s look at the current favorite amongst so-called libertarians, Ted Cruz (and we’ll throw in his buddy Carson as an added bonus):

Cruz said, “Apple has a serious argument” in protecting users’ privacy but said resisting the FBI’s request for help amounted to defying a search warrant. Carson said that Apple should find a way to get over mistrust of the government, but then added that might have to wait until President Obama leaves office, allowing for a delay that the FBI would probably oppose.

As if defying a terrible court order is a bad thing. My “libertarian” friends that support Cruz keep telling me he’s for small government and individual liberty but I can’t fathom how a man who thinks a court has a right to enslave software developers is for small government. Carson also demonstrates his love of government by criticizing Apple for being mistrustful of it.

Finally, just for fun, I’m going to throw in Tom “I Hate Due Process” Cotton for giggles:

“As a society, we don’t allow phone companies to design their systems to avoid lawful, court-ordered searches,” Cotton said in the statement. “If we apply a different legal standard to companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook, we can expect them to become the preferred messaging services of child pornographers, drug traffickers, and terrorists alike — which neither these companies nor law enforcement want.”

Whereas the other Republicans at least tried to sound kind of reasonable, Cotton went straight for the “messaging service of child pornographers, drug traffickers, and terrorists” line.

The Republican Party really is the party of fascism (as opposed to their close rival, the Democratic Party, which prefers its socialism be international). Not only are the policies put forth by Republican lawmakers generally fascist in nature but its members can’t help themselves when an opportunity to go on television and public declare their fascist policies presents itself. How this is supposed to be the party libertarians can prevail with is beyond me.

Doublethink

In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four doublethink is described as, “The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them… To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary.” That is the most accurate term to describe the White House’s claim that what the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is demanding of Apple isn’t a back door:

The White House says a court ruling asking Apple to help the FBI access data on a phone belonging to the San Bernardino gunman does not mean asking for a “back door” to the device.

By definition a backdoor, as it pertains to security, is a purposely placed mechanism that allows an unauthorized party to bypass security measures. What the FBI is asking Apple to develop is a special version of iOS that attempts to brute force the device’s password and doesn’t contain the increasing timed lockout functionality when entering incorrect passwords or the functionality that erases the phone after 10 incorrect passwords have been entered. The FBI is asking for a backdoor.

Just because the FBI is demanding this special firmware for a specific iPhone doesn’t mean the firmware isn’t a backdoor. But through the magic of doublethink the White House is able to claim what the FBI is demanding isn’t a backdoor.

Legally Speaking, You’re The Property Of The State

The All Writs Act is a piece of legislation that made it clear in vague but certain terms that everybody in the United States is the property of the State:

Basically, it’s “a very short, cryptic statute” that gives the courts “all sorts of incidental powers” to require things not specifically covered by other laws, according to Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at American University.

In the past, the act has been used to compel non-parties — like service providers of tech companies — to help in criminal investigations, Vladeck said. But that help has typically been limited to straightforward requests, like activating or turning off particular features and using systems that are already in place, he said.

The new order is different: It tells Apple to help the government by creating an entirely new software to help investigators bypasses security features. “That requires Apple to go much further than any company has ever been required to go in one of these cases,” said Vladeck.

Although the statue is short and rather vague its intention is quite clear: to give the State the legal authority to compel people into performing actions. It’s currently being cited to compel Apple to create a custom backdoor for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). But this isn’t he first time this archaic law has been used to force technology companies to perform the State’s will.

Can a court compel a person to act? If so that effectively makes everybody the slave of any judge with an order. It’s clear that the State believes a judge has such authority because it allows them to hold disobedient individuals in a cage for being in contempt of court. Therefore it must be said that the All Writs Act creates a form of legalized slavery.

TANSTAAFL

Free K-12 schooling! Free college! Free healthcare! The State sure is magnanimous!

Unfortunately, to the chagrin of utopians, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch:

WILLOW RIVER — Scott Killerud was about to throw away a mailing about the 2016 enrollment period for MNsure last November when something caught his eye.

“Just as I was going to drop it in the trash, I was like — wait a second. What did I just read?” the Pine County farmer said.

What caught his eye was a notification that if you’re 55 or older and on Medical Assistance — Minnesota’s version of Medicaid — the state places an estate claim with which to recover its costs after you and your spouse have died.

Killerud was younger than 55, but his wife, Ellen, had reached that age the previous September. The couple, who supplement their farm income with part-time jobs, were told when they signed up for insurance through MNsure in 2014 that their income level qualified them for Medical Assistance.

But they didn’t know about the estate claim until Scott saw that mailing.

The State is in the business of stealing wealth, not handing it out. Whenever it claims to be giving something out for free you can be assured it’s part of a scam that is actually granting it further power to plunder the people.

Health insurance is the peak of the latest pyramid scheme. Acknowledging the fact that income taxes offer little in the way of plunder from people with little income, the State has created a program that allows it to take assets instead. This is especially important because it’s not unusual for retired individuals to have little in the way of income but a sizable sum in assets. By getting these individuals to sign up with MNsure, the State of Minnesota can give itself access to wealth that was previously outside of its grasps.

There is a lengthy list of things you should always be wary off. At the top of that list should people offering free stuff.

Apple Tells The Feds To Pound Sand

The technology industry has a long history of being run by antiauthoritarians who bark a lot but roll over as soon as Uncle Sam commands it. This has lead to a great deal of disappointment for me. Fortunately, after the Edward Snowden leaks, some technology companies have started developing a bit of a spine.

Yesterday a robed one in a court room commanded Apple to produce a custom firmware that would allow the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to more easily brute force the passcode on a suspect’s iPhone:

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Riverside, California, ordered Apple to help the government unlock and decrypt the iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who shot up an office party in a terrorist attack in nearby San Bernardino in December 2015.

Specifically, United States Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym mandated that Apple provide the FBI a custom firmware file, known as an IPSW file, that would likely enable investigators to brute force the passcode lockout currently on the phone, which is running iOS 9.

By issuing this order Judge Pym openly stated that he believes Apple is a slave to the federal government and therefore can be forced to perform labor against its will. This is the point where a lot of technology companies would simply roll over and accept their place. Apple has decided it doesn’t want to play ball:

The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.

[…]

Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.

The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.

The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.

Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.

It will be interesting to see how far Apple can go in resisting this order but even if it does end up folding under the threat of government guns I want to give the company a hell of a lot of credit for this.

As Apple’s letter notes, this ruling as consequences far greater than this case alone. First, it would set a precedence that everybody is little more than a slave to the robed overlords of the courtrooms. Second, it would introduce an officially signed firmware that is purposely weakened to allow law enforcers to bypass built-in security mechanisms.

The first consequence isn’t anything new since the State has always viewed the people as slaves. But the second consequence is severe. I’m sure the FBI has pinky swore that it will never use this firmware again but anybody familiar with the agency’s history knows such a promise will be broken. And the state of the federal government’s network security means this custom firmware will almost certainly end up online at some point. Then it will be available to nongovernmental terrorists, domestic abusers, and other violent individuals with a vested interest in snooping on their targets.

Whether you like Apple or not, I believe the company deserves a lot of credit for this. I hope it inspires other companies to follow suit.