Stand with Apple – Go Dark

Apple

Apple is a target plain and simple.

If the US Government succeeds in their ploy to force Apple to create custom code that decrypts the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone we all loose.

This is not about the rights of terrorists. Put a bullet in the brain of all terrorists and let God sort ‘em out. I truly don’t give a flying fuck about some Muslim asshole that should’ve been turned around at the border. I’m honestly surprised that they even can use a smart phone isn’t there some fatwa saying followers of Islam must remain in the 12th century?

Tim Cook

Anyhoo…

This fight between Apple and the Government is about access and control. For over a year we’ve been hearing the FBI telling us they don’t like encryption. The NSA doesn’t like it either and with good reason. They can’t spy on average citizens and don’t even dare to think that’s not exactly what they want to do.

idiots happen

Last night on the news I heard average people being interviewed saying stuff like “Well if it’s to fight terrorists it’s worth giving up a little freedom and privacy.”

To those people I say this.

YOU’RE MORONS!

Emperor Ming

The same argument was made right after 9/11, and that gave us The Patriot Act which is by the way still in effect.

Some of the more sinister things about the Patriot act are the scope of Presidential power, the ability to indefinitely detain a citizen without due process, and the unprecedented scope of surveillance that is now permitted.

Remember how pissed off everyone was about the Edward Snowden revelations? How we found out that the NSA was recording all kinds of information from our phones? Yeah, that’s what comes from giving up just “a little freedom and privacy.”

Edward Snowden.

Apple can’t fight this fight alone. Even Apple and Google together can’t fight this fight.

We’ve gotta help.

We do that by going dark.

You can buy encryption from a variety of vendors.

But you can find some excellent encryption for free if you go looking for it. Open source encryption is pretty robust.

VPN

Encrypt everything you own. All your drives, all your files stored in the cloud. Then find a VPN service that you like and think you can trust, if they’re European even better.

Make sure that their data is end to end encrypted and use the service all the time on every device you own. 

It’s not just about taking a stand. If your information is encrypted, then it’s a lot harder for bad guys to get their hands on personal data that could be used to hurt you.

Encrypt

Make it a cause. 

#godarkforprivacy
#godarkforapple

The only way we keep our rights and privacy to to defend those rights and privacy vigorously.

Thats my public service announcement for the day.

Obviously I’m missing something.

La me ln apple san bernardino security 2016021 001

The FBI went to a judge and apparently whined they couldn’t access the data in one of the San Bernardino Terrorist’s phones. 

A Judge ordered Apple to assist the FBI.

Apple responded that the programming doesn’t exist (by design) which would allow even them (Apple) to break into the phone.

Then Trump gets in on the action and says we need to get the information on that phone.

To which I say;

NO WE DON’T

I’d like to tell Trump to be quiet and let the adults talk.

Just because the information happens to exist on a phone, doesn’t mean that we have to access it. If the data were written on paper that had been burned, the FBI wouldn’t have access to it would they? Data locked on a phone is essentially the same.

The FBI does have other phones belonging to the San Bernardino Terrorists. They have access to all the bills and phone records of calls made to and from each of the phones in question.

Along with that information the FBI no doubt has access to all the text messages, or at least the source and destination phone numbers associated with those text messages. Just as I have that information for SMS messages printed on my cell phone bill every month.

What the FBI doesn’t have is information that may have been sent from that iPhone 5C to other iPhones, iPads, or Macs. This is because the information was sent via data channels instead of via SMS.

To quote another famous phrase, “What does it matter at this point anyway?

The FBI has the terrorist’s computers, the odds are damn high that any communications carried out on the phone were replicated on the computers.  These terrorists are dead on the pavement, they’ve been disavowed by ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban. 

This strikes me as nothing more than an end run around the issues of encryption by the FBI. 

Apple doesn’t have the software to break into the phone, because creation of that software would eventually mean that the software would get out. After all we all know how secure Data at the Office of Personnel Management was. How about the IRS data? Or the Healthcare.GOV data? Or, Or, Or…

Once a program capable of cracking the encryption on an iPhone or Samsung phone is out in the world, no-one has privacy.

This is the fundamental argument Tim Cook of Apple has been making all along.

Apple is very explicit in their encryption warnings on their computers. If you loose this password and you don’t have a recovery key we can’t help you. My computer’s drive is encrypted, I have the key stored and I know the password. But I don’t expect Apple to be able to decrypt my drive, or my iPhone, or my iPad. Even if I was stupid enough to loose or forget the passwords…

I don’t want Apple to be able to decrypt my stuff ever!

Beyond that is this point.

MIT recently reported there were something like 586 different encryption programs freely available from a variety of sources. So even if Apple compromises it’s principals (I hope to God they don’t) Criminals will simply choose an alternative encryption technique.

When that happens, what’s the FBI going to do? Bitch, piss, and moan their way into making a manufacturer in Switzerland, for example build them a backdoor?  If that day comes I’d be curious to see the response the FBI gets.

According to the LA Times article Farook disabled the icloud backup 6 weeks prior to the attack. It’s entirely likely that Farook disabled the GPS function and deleted messages as well. So even if the FBI gains access, it’s questionable if there will be any useful data recovered.

Regardless, the damage done to American privacy will be done.

Trump!

Donald_Trump_by_Gage_SkidmoreI’m still highly unlikely to vote for Donald Trump.

But I gotta hand it to him, he’s turning things upside down and doing his country a service by exposing the true colors of candidates, both Republican and Democrat.

He’s also ripping away the masks of smug progressive newspeople.

Almost makes me wish I’d watched the debates… Almost.

I think I still prefer reading about them the day after. By that time the left has managed to spin themselves into a self righteous santorum froth.

One thing I can say is that even if Trump is a complete buffoon, (and I’m not saying he is, that jury is still out.) he’s got to be causing some consternation among the enemies of this country.

syrian-refugees-turkey.jpg_736776827Lets look at some of the things he’s been taken to task over.

Close our borders to Middle Eastern refugees until we know what is happening and our vetting process works.

This seems to be a logical and reasonable approach, since it’s become obvious our vetting process isn’t weeding out jihadists even with the cooperation of so called “Friendly” Middle Eastern countries.

The media and other candidates practically lost their minds about this Trump suggestion.

Some called this plan unconstitutional, others called it racist. I call it neither.

Every Sovereign Nation on the planet has the right to protect itself and it’s people from threats. Our constitution conveys, codifies, and supposedly insures certain rights to the citizens of our country. International law, treaties, and agreements apply to non-citizens.

In many cases our constitution and international law parallel each other.

However, our constitution doesn’t guarantee that any foreign born person will be allowed to enter our country, or given citizenship.

Saudi-Prince-Alwaleed-bin-Talal-370x231The fact that a Saudi Prince, ISIS and CAIR all condemned Trump’s suggestion could indicate he’s on the right track.

Then Trump suggested shutting down part of the internet, particularly those parts of the internet that service the Middle East which are under control of ISIS or other radical well known groups that have stated directly that they want to destroy America specifically or the West in general.

This is WAR 101.

Deny your enemies command, communication, coordination, and supplies.

I personally ave never understood why we didn’t plant C-4 on every cell tower our troops encountered in Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Deny communication.
Thereby denying command and coordination.

Extending this philosophy to the internet makes damn good sense and it’s technically possible. But it’s better.

internet_1By killing internet connections into and out of Jihadi, ISIS, Terrorists areas.

You deny their ability to easily recruit, send money, (As Bitcoin or other e-currencies ) or communicate their agenda.

Wth the internet gone these groups lose their ability to brag about their successes in battle.  You deprive folks like ISIS the grandstanding moments of executing their enemies or destroying monuments on worldwide tv.

SanbernardiLets face it ISIS is a media whore. They want, and need the attention afforded them by distribution of shock videos. They need to romanticize themselves as the feisty righteous underdog on social media sites to attract young recruits.

If we were to cut those lines of communication, then we have a much easier time of controlling their message and we can follow their couriers back to bases of operation.

We know that the videos will still be made. We know that ISIS will try to distribute these videos. By narrowing the channels to Al Jezera, Satellite uplinks, or refugees, we make it really easy to identify sympathizers from whom we may get information. We can target the bases uplinks originate from, and easily vet refugees. (If a refugee is carrying a video, they don’t get refugee status, ever!)

So Trump’s suggestion about the internet is technically possible, easily implemented with changes to settings in routers, and no-one gets shot by doing it. Cheap & easy!

I like the minimum effort —> maximum result equation.

We own and control the technology, why let our self-declared enemies use it to potentially harm us?

Cutting ISIS off from the rest of the world is step one in containment.

Who cares if some people will call it censorship? Back in the bad ‘ol days reporters would send film or magnetic tape to their editors from Viet Nam.

Yeah, remember that? Without the instantaneous communication the internet provides, reporters turned in thoughtful well written articles. Their competition wasn’t confined solely to who could report an event the fastest, but also who reported an event correctly.

Trump’s suggestion simply takes the area back to the 1960’s. Messages written on paper, videos on physical media instead of youtube. If you think about it, It’s not actually censorship, it’s just slowing information down.

19n04planes-483393I’d bet President Putin would be agreeable to a little phone and internet silence.

After all, It’s a lot safer to fly your planes when you don’t have spotters sending info about the planes, to anti-aircraft guns all along the flight path.

I’d love to see the entire area cut off. I’d love to see what happened next.