TER General Board

Re:oh dear...oh dear oh dear.....
Dancingbear125 11 Reviews 2996 reads
posted

Who needs a mini-series? Get a history book. How about the congressional hearing of McCarthy in the 50's? Todays terrorist was yesterdays communist. I don't have anything against our government agencies working to protect our lives, and our property, but most important is our way of life. The freedoms that so many have fought and died for are what makes us who we are. To take any of them away is the greatest way to make a terrorist successful. A terrorist acts to change a society in fundemental ways. The attack on 9/11 has had, and continues to have a devestating effect on our national self-confidence. We are becoming paralyzed with fear and paranoia. It was a tragedy, many people died and those who were involved should be found and tried for the crime. They should not be given any political status in any way. That only feeds the flame. This color coding thing they are doing is stupid, for mainly one reason, just like car alarms that are always going off after awhile no one pays attention. If we are on yell ow or orange alert (which we always are) and nothing happens day after day, do you still continue your heightened level of vigilance? I think it is only there in case. Incase something does happen, the administration can say," see we warned you." But all of this fear is causing irreprable harm to the spirit of our country. We are hiding from the boogiemen that want to hurt us. I find the words of Ben Franklin to still be of import. More so now then in a very long time. "Those who would give up thier libirties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." I'm sure he said it better, but that is the gist of it.

Landem2948 reads

In an attempt to head off another of those political flamewars that seem to inevitably follow stories like this one, I would like to point out the following.

To those (you know who you are) who will be tempted to raise the hue and cry that this is just another example of the evil Bush Administration's desire and intent to strip away all vestiges of privacy and increase government surveillance of our lives, please note: the DOJ and FBI have had a policy of seeking legal access to interception of internet communications ever since Al Gore invented the internet.

Please note the second paragraph of the CNN article "the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, a 1994 law . . ."  In 1994, of course, not only was Bill Clinton the in the White House, but the Democrats were in the majority in both Senate and the House of Representatives.

Also, take a look at the link below for a discussion of the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act, proposed by the administration in September of . . . wait for it . . . 1999.

No doubt I will be labeled one of the "pseudo right wing nuts on this board" by another poster a few threads down. So be it, though I am not. But it is important to remember that the efforts of the federal government to enhance its ability to eavesdrop on any and all communications which it deems necessary did NOT begin in January, 2001.

Landem2045 reads

Surely you are not suggesting that a candidate for the office of President of the United States uttered an untruth? I am truly shocked!

ThePatriot3376 reads

I agree Michelle. Big-Brother is using technology to get around the bill of rights more and more. GPS records on your car to see where you have been. Internet "taps" to see what you're doing.
Not Good! Not good at all.

check out safe-mail.net.  They are in the process of moving their server off shore to protect the privacy of their clients.
Cheers.

The genie is out of the bottle, and people can already defend themselves from passive snooping RIGHT NOW (whether by the government, organized crime, jealous spouses, curious peepers who work at your ISP, etc).  The only catch is that they have to care enough about it, to do it.  Look into PGP or GnuPG.

It's unlikely the NSA has cracked RSA or ElGamal.  But even if they have, the crack could never be widely deployed to local LEOs (or probably even the FBI) where it could be used against most citizens, without the word getting out.  And they're not going to do that, because billions of dollars of e-commerce would be destabilized.

Now, if you're actually a criminal, then they're going to get a warrant (hopefully ;) and break and enter your house to install keyloggers or cameras or something, to intercept secrets while they're plaintext.  But that's ok, because that takes some real conviction and investment and risk on their part.  And believe it or not, this is still America.  For all the goofiness of the war of drugs and the new PATRIOT act powers, it's not like we're talking about STASI or the KGB, who were willing to betray their people at the drop of the hat.

But We The People need to take that first step.  Start getting familiar with crypto software, so that if somebody (maybe the government, maybe someone else) does intercept your packets, they'll just get noise.

Oh yeah, and eventually someone like Microsoft is going to come along and try to trick you into using some proprietary tech that probably has a back door.  Just Say No.  The OpenPGP standard that is used by PGP and GnuPG, has been proven by a decade and a half of use and immeasurable peer review.

crank_yanker2481 reads

effective security will elude the common user for another decade I predict.  It reminds me of how computers were still not ready for prime time a decade ago and in some ways still aren't suitable for the masses.  What I mean by this is that users are required to know too much about the technology.  Users stumble along as technology creeps forward (sigh).  Steve Jobs...forgive them, they know not what they do!
cheers,
cy

You'll find me to be among the more conservative members here, but this scares the shit out of me, as does the PATRIOT Act.

Next step: "Congressional Committee on Terrorism and for the Protection of the American Way of Life."

Followed shortly thereafter by black lists.

Anybody remember the miniseries, "Amerika"?

Yoda

Who needs a mini-series? Get a history book. How about the congressional hearing of McCarthy in the 50's? Todays terrorist was yesterdays communist. I don't have anything against our government agencies working to protect our lives, and our property, but most important is our way of life. The freedoms that so many have fought and died for are what makes us who we are. To take any of them away is the greatest way to make a terrorist successful. A terrorist acts to change a society in fundemental ways. The attack on 9/11 has had, and continues to have a devestating effect on our national self-confidence. We are becoming paralyzed with fear and paranoia. It was a tragedy, many people died and those who were involved should be found and tried for the crime. They should not be given any political status in any way. That only feeds the flame. This color coding thing they are doing is stupid, for mainly one reason, just like car alarms that are always going off after awhile no one pays attention. If we are on yell ow or orange alert (which we always are) and nothing happens day after day, do you still continue your heightened level of vigilance? I think it is only there in case. Incase something does happen, the administration can say," see we warned you." But all of this fear is causing irreprable harm to the spirit of our country. We are hiding from the boogiemen that want to hurt us. I find the words of Ben Franklin to still be of import. More so now then in a very long time. "Those who would give up thier libirties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." I'm sure he said it better, but that is the gist of it.

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