Off Topic. Encrypting this forum

[TESLACOIL]

Off Topic. Encrypting this forum.

EVERYTHING You Do Online Is Recorded In XKeyscore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NHvcqpBR8w

As you are probably aware advances in computing means that the NSA and pretty much any hacker with a dog can effortlessly build a database of everyone on earth.

We will have to prepare ourselves for Martini Encryption regimes encryption everyplace,every-time & everywhere.

This would mean encrypting this forum, the FreeBASIC wiki etc etc and encrypting it in numerous ways using numerous evolving methods. Although we are not a bunch of terrorists it is important that we make it as massively inconvenient as possible for criminal hackers, governments & all sort of companies and agencies to track as and build up a jigsaw puzzle of who we are & what we do.


* all computer data is currently encrypted from the point of view that it is unintelligible 1's and 0's so it doesn't require to much brainpower to add a little algorithmic spice to mix up those 1's and 0's so that they become unreadable to passers by.

For example (a very simple one) when a user registers they get sent a key that allows them to read the forum.

That key could be reset every few months, not an huge inconvenience if its a 1 click affair, or some kind of cpatcha integrated update. Indeed you could be asked to cut n paste a bit of FreeBASIC code to update your key.

Every wall we and normal net users like us throw up is another wall the neredowells have to break down. Individual walls may we low but if they are numerous enough, as in everywhere !, then the jigsaw of your life starts to get patchy to the point of being unusable by those who wish to ruthlessly exploit your open, friendly & co-operative nature.



To be fair WE CODERS, hobbyist and otherwise only have ourselves to blame. We should have seen Snowden/NSA etc coming and acted preemptively decades ago...we didn't and now the world of ordinary folk is starting to pay a growing price.

This is IMPORTANT STUFF PEOPLE

This is how the future has to be

[jevans4949]

Don't worry, Tesla, people have enough trouble decrypting your posts as it is.

[Kot]

"He was a kind of paranoid that other paranoids spoke to him 'chill out, man'" - Mike Carey (I'm not sure if I translated it correctly back to English)

[Merick]

I am sorry my friend, but the government already knows everything about you.


Even the things they would rather not know....

[TESLACOIL]

There are two choices open to us.

1) we make it easy for people to spy on us

2) we make it harder for people to spy on us

A lot of my posts are related to the future of computing and advances in computing.

It kind of helps to keep one eye on the future, after all it flocking our way whether we like it or not !. If you haven't thought about these things, then its is perhaps time you did. Even if you are just a 'hobby coder' it is wise to keep up with whats going on elsewhere in computer land.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance

[marcov]

"Just because you are Paranoid, Don’t mean they're not after you!"

--- Kurt Cobain paraphrasing Joseph Heller in Catch-22

[ike]

Overwhelmed
-----------------
An 'Overwhelmed' NSA Still Doesn't Know What Snowden Took

NSA Overwhelmed by Cell Phone Use
Despite a reputation for omnipotence and omniscience, the NSA is collecting less than 30 percent of all U.S. call records thanks to the surge in cell phone usage.
----------------
They are just wasting money and time. They know everything about 95 % people,
and other 5% use peer to peer, dark internet (deep web), bitcoin, bitmessage,
TOR etc etc and within that 5% new Julians and Edwards are working ...
======================================
Matthew 10:26

So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

[Mentat]

For an open source oriented community, seems awfully silly to hide perfectly innocuous discussions about code. And inconvenient to boot.

[jevans4949]

For an open source oriented community, seems awfully silly to hide perfectly innocuous discussions about code. And inconvenient to boot.

Well, precisely. If you have something fiendishly clever affecting (anybody's) security (positively or negatively), this is not the place to post it.

[TESLACOIL]

ref For an open source oriented community, seems awfully silly to hide perfectly innocuous discussions about code. And inconvenient to boot.

At first glance yes BUT data mining is all about collecting perfectly innocent data and using that as a framework to dig deeper

Information is power, it always has been a small but significant factor in human civilizations. Having 'too much informational power' is a bit like a chimpanzee with a atomic hand grenade.

Modern humans are better educated, better informed, obviously more aware (understanding as a defense) but our brains are fixed and finite. As an individual we are now faced with stupendous silicon brains with narrow intelligence driven by people like us but with motives that are not aligned to our needs and wants.

Throughout history

Throughout history technology has forced us to change, the longbow, the a- bomb, the printing press, the internet. Nothing new, it just takes society a while to figure out how to handle the downsides of technology. Those with a greater understanding of the dangers are the ones that raise the issue. If you don't work in security or with databases then the downsides of 'too much informational power' are not so obvious. Those down sides need to be addressed and the OP is part of that global conversation.

[angros47]

In case you haven't noticed, this forum is PUBLIC. This means, every message posted here is visible to everybody, in all the world.

So, why worrying about NSA reading your posts, since everybody else already can read them?

An encrypted forum would be useless, because NSA could not read it... but neither could we. Also, to keep your data secure, there is a much better solution than using an encrypted forum: just don't put your private data on any forum, you don't have to.

On a forum you have to post only data you are willing to share, and nothing more: even if the forum were encrypted, you don't know its users (you don't even know what is my job... maybe I work for NSA, how can you tell?)

[TESLACOIL]

I agree that all privacy and security measures create extra hassle for the enduser. Especially if they are badly implemented.

CAPTCHA , an invention designed to make it hard for spambots to flood forums. A pain in the butt but is sometimes essential.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA

The words you are reading now are ALREADY encrypted. The data has already undergone several types of 'human unreadable' translations. You need an internet browser to read it. To add an extra layer of encryption or privacy would not be that hard to do.

Some forums are private, many forums have private sections. A small barrier yes, but it reduces machine trawling.

I do think it is getting to the stage when the average Joe Surfer has to start taking internet security seriously. On here we are hobby coders or pro coders. Discussing these issues is our day job or part time hobby. People tend to be lax about these things until its their data or their credit card details that have been stolen and used against them.