Tag: encryption

UK Home Secretary Uses Idea of Keeping Children Safe as a Justification To Demand Ban on Private Messaging

It would be extremely refreshing to hear a government official in the UK, or in a number of other countries, make a, “think of the encryption” plea – which would show they understand the very fundamentals of a safe and privacy-preserving internet.

But instead, we are getting more and more “think of the children” platitudes – as always, designed not to actually do that, but mask other, controversial and unpopular policies.

This time, it is UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman who claims that her opposition to Facebook’s slow-moving, alleged attempt to make a number of its products safe via implementing end-to-end encryption has to do with fears that children might get abused online.

Any tech-literate person would present the big picture, and argue quite the opposite, but Braverman is either not one of those, or elects to pretend not to be, in order to serve a policy that is staunchly anti-encryption, for a whole different reason – summed up, that technology stands severely annoyingly, no doubt, in the way of governments’ wholesale mass surveillance of everybody on the internet.

And what better place to twist the narrative about fears of awful things like child grooming and sexual abuse – perversely juxtaposed with actually improving internet security, i.e., encryption – than a get-together of the (in)famous “Five Eyes,” held in one eager member – New Zealand.

Braverman made an effort to write to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and, ignoring the reality of what an internet without encryption would turn into, tried, no doubt, above all to pull at her constituents’ heartstrings:

“As a mother to young children,” the politician stomped her feet, “I won’t stand by idly and watch this happen,” The Daily Mail reported.

“This” would be – platforms like Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct introducing secure communications, so that third parties – be they criminals, malign (foreign) actors, or (sometimes (effectively malign) domestic law enforcement – cannot just swoop in and use personal information in any way they please, including to directly harm those participating, children included, by gaining unfettered access to all their data.

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These ‘Psychedelic Cryptography’ Videos Have Hidden Messages Designed to Be Seen While Tripping

A new competition focused on “Psychedelic Cryptography” has awarded cash prizes to artists who made videos encoded with hidden messages that can be most easily deciphered by a person who is tripping on psychedelic substances, such as LSD, ayahuasca, or psilocybin mushrooms.

Qualia Research Institute (QRI), a California-based nonprofit group that researches consciousness with backing from tech investors and experts, announced the winners of its Psychedelic Cryptography (PsyCrypto) contest last week. The goal of the exercise was “to create encodings of sensory information that are only meaningful when experienced on psychedelics in order to show the specific information-processing advantages of those states,” according to the original contest page, which was posted in March.

Artist Raimonds Jermaks clinched the first and second place prizes in the contest for videos entitled “Can You See Us?” and “ We Are Here. Let’s Talk.” The third prize went to Rūdolfs Balcers for the video “The Key.” The contest entries were judged by members of QRI’s international phenomenologist network, and evaluated based on their effectiveness, specificity, and aesthetic value.

The winning videos play on the common psychedelic experience of seeing radiant “tracers,” which are trails of colors and afterimages that linger in the visual field. The winning artists used this effect to write out tracer-based messages that are incomprehensible to a sober person, but that can be understood while tripping.  

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Leaked Document Shows The EU Countries That Want To Ban Private Messaging

A leaked European Council survey of the views on encryption of member countries showed that Spain strongly supports banning end-to-end encryption, a measure that has been proposed to combat the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but would end privacy for all citizens.

The proposed law would require tech platforms to scan encrypted communications, something tech experts have warned is not possible without breaking the encryption.

According to the document, which was obtained by Wired, Spain’s position in encryption is the most radical.

“Ideally, in our view, it would be desirable to legislatively prevent EU-based service providers from implementing end-to-end encryption,” representatives from Spain said.

End-to-end encryption ensures that only the sender and receiver can see the content of a message. Even the owner of the platform does not have access to the content.

Of the 20 member countries represented in the survey, 15 support the banning of end-to-end encrypted communications, the report stated.

Poland suggested the introduction of measures that would allow a court to lift encryption and for parents to be allowed to decrypt the communications of their children.

“It is of utmost importance to provide clear wording in the CSA Regulation that end-to-end encryption is not a reason not to report CSA material,” Croatia’s representatives said.

Romania said: “We don’t want E2EE encryption to become a ‘safe haven’ for malicious actors…”

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The EARN IT Act, an attack on encrypted communications, to be reintroduced next week

Those behind the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act must be hoping that third time’s a charm for this previously widely-opposed piece of legislation, that is set to be reintroduced next week.

The previous two attempts to make EARN IT into law failed amid outcry from opponents who said that while designed to protect children, the bill would fail to do that – but would still damage online privacy.

Now here’s the third, bipartisan attempt sponsored by Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal to bring changes to the Communication Decency Act (CDA) Section 230.

Critics say that the amendment as envisaged by EARN IT would harm internet users by removing legal protections Section 230 gives tech companies for third party content.

The consequence would be those companies protecting themselves by engaging in (even more) censorship, and “working” with the government to this end – even more than we are aware they already do.

At the core of EARN IT is to target platforms for violations related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) rules that exist at the federal and state level.

But allegedly, these platforms are reluctant to “moderate” i.e., censor content in a heavy-handed manner, and for that reason oppose the legislation.

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Lori Lightfoot ripped by Chicago media for ignoring concerns about police scanner suppression

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, D., is facing criticism for ignoring local media members who are critical of her administration transitioning away from the traditional police scanner toward the use of an encrypted radio frequency.

A coalition of news organizations claims the new system will be inaccessible to the public and will hamper journalists’ ability to listen in real-time to warn the public about ongoing threats to safety. 

Traditional police scanner transmissions have always been accessible to the public, as well as media personnel, but the new encryption method is only accessible to the police and those offered a decryption key.

“Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration has refused to meet with members of the Chicago media who have voiced concern this will impact journalists’ ability to cover events as they unfold and warn the public about ongoing threats to safety,” Chicago outlet WGN9 reported.

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UK government hires ad agency to convince the public they don’t need privacy

The UK is stepping up its “war on encryption,” reports are saying, and like in any good old war, propaganda comes first to “prepare the ground.” And a new campaign is expected to launch as early as this month.

In this case, they call it publicity, with the Home Office being behind the effort whose goal is to sway public opinion in favor of undermining the privacy of the very members of that public – using their own money from public funds, to the tune of over half a million pounds.

Meanwhile the “hired gun” is ad agency M&C Saatchi. The Rolling Stone said it had a chance to review documents thanks to a Freedom of Information request, and that what it discovered were “some shockingly manipulative tactics.”

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London Met police chief invokes 9/11 to call for ban on private messaging

London’s controversial police boss Cressida Dick used 9/11 to attack companies like Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, and Apple for using end-to-end encryption. Her remarks came a few days after the Home Office announced it would award tech companies that would find a way to break end-to-end encryption.

In an opinion piece published in The Telegraph, Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, while commemorating 9/11, noted that encrypted messaging services make stopping terror attacks difficult, and sometimes impossible.

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Apple’s Plan to “Think Different” About Encryption Opens a Backdoor to Your Private Life

Apple has announced impending changes to its operating systems that include new “protections for children” features in iCloud and iMessage. If you’ve spent any time following the Crypto Wars, you know what this means: Apple is planning to build a backdoor into its data storage system and its messaging system.

Child exploitation is a serious problem, and Apple isn’t the first tech company to bend its privacy-protective stance in an attempt to combat it. But that choice will come at a high price for overall user privacy. Apple can explain at length how its technical implementation will preserve privacy and security in its proposed backdoor, but at the end of the day, even a thoroughly documented, carefully thought-out, and narrowly-scoped backdoor is still a backdoor.

To say that we are disappointed by Apple’s plans is an understatement. Apple has historically been a champion of end-to-end encryption, for all of the same reasons that EFF has articulated time and time again. Apple’s compromise on end-to-end encryption may appease government agencies in the U.S. and abroad, but it is a shocking about-face for users who have relied on the company’s leadership in privacy and security.

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The FBI’s Fake Encrypted Honeypot Phones Are Showing Up Online

About a month ago, it was revealed that an encrypted phone company was actually a front for a gargantuan FBI operation called “Trojan Shield.” The company, which was really a law enforcement honeypot, sold a product called “ANOM,” an encrypted chat application installed on specific, hardened phones that the bureau was secretly distributing to track and monitor organized crime groups.

Criminals thought they were getting a secure, impenetrable communication platform but, in reality, their networks were owned by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies—the devices having been designed by the bureau in collaboration with a high-level criminal informant who had previously sold such hardened, encrypted devices to underworld networks.

Now it’s being reported by Motherboard that those phones are weirdly being resold on the secondary market, popping up on Craigslist-like forums and online retailers.

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FBI sold phones to organized crime and read 27 million “encrypted” messages

The Federal Bureau of Investigation created a company that sold encrypted devices to hundreds of organized crime syndicates, resulting in 800 arrests in 16 countries, law-enforcement authorities announced today. The FBI and agencies in other countries intercepted 27 million messages over 18 months before making the arrests in recent days, and more arrests are planned.

The FBI teamed up with Australian Federal Police to target drug trafficking and money laundering. They “strategically developed and covertly operated an encrypted device company, called ANOM, which grew to service more than 12,000 encrypted devices to over 300 criminal syndicates operating in more than 100 countries, including Italian organized crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and international drug trafficking organizations,” Europol said today.

Distribution of the devices began in October 2018. The cellphones sold by the FBI-run company were “procured on the black market” and “performed a single function hidden behind a calculator app: sending encrypted messages and photos,” The New York Times wrote today. The cellphones were “stripped of all normal functions,” with the faux calculator being the only working app. Once users entered a code, they could use the app to send messages that they thought were protected by end-to-end encryption.

“For years, organized crime figures around the globe relied on the devices to orchestrate international drug shipments, coordinate the trafficking of arms and explosives, and discuss contract killings, law enforcement officials said,” the Times wrote. “Users trusted the devices’ security so much that they often laid out their plans not in code, but in plain language.”

Unbeknownst to users, messages were routed to an FBI-owned server and decrypted with a master key controlled by the FBI.

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