Hi John,Now...I understood that posting perfectly... :-). Thank you. Remember, "Idealism is the last refuge of the cynic" to revise that infamous quote of Oscar Wilde. A Utopian future with the NSA and GCHQ as the main actors, is like mixing niacin and bicarbonate of soda and calling it a rice pudding.
I did wonder why you were forced to change your ISP. I remember the story you published about the U.S. Coastguard and Tempest. Cost them a lot of money to overcome that exposition, denial upon denial upon denial, and yet they expect us to trust them to tell the truth, still...there are many truths...one just has to pick the one, one likes... :-). Seems so long ago, yet...no more than yesterday... in modern analogy...:-).
Can one imagine the NSA going out of fashion... :-). What would we have in its place? Perhaps an internet of thingys, which belongs to the people and services their needs, wants and desires, and who use it to further the knowledge of the human race, rather than the private owners who exploit it and governments who try to limit it, for their own purposes and profits...?
Why!... It would be a bit like nationalising Wall Street... :-).Still, technology can work both ways...For the benefit of the people as well as to their detriment. Folks just have to learn more about it and use that learning. The pursuit and protection of liberty and freedom requires the struggle of all of the people, and a corpus of knowledge, amongst as many people as possible is the key. It is one reason why I like Cryptome and support the mailing list. It is one of the few participants on the internet and world wide web, which tries hard to inform people without some commercial motive, or private hobby horse.
Back to noise and the Tempest, I did notice the other day, that when I used my new tablet to access my online trading account for the first time, that I had to confirm its use via my phone. The phone call to me was automated, and obviously, my voice had been recorded by some kind of voice pattern recognition software, by the company concerned. My wife and I were most surprised, because the quality of the phone call was such that it was almost...I say almost, imperceptible from a real human being. The reason it was so surprising was because I speak with a very strong Scottish accent, and me missus says I mumble rather than speak coherent English, yet the software understood me perfectly. Voice pattern recognition has come a long way, since those early days...
I can see that one day, computers will become so well trained that they will have an orgasm, from which we will be unable to differentiate from the real thing. Perhaps this is why the likes of Stephen Hawking of "imaginary time" fame, are so worried about Turing's concept of being unable to discern a human being from being a computer, being fulfilled in the very near future...Such prophesies makes me laugh, really... ;-). It wasn't the dinosaurs who destroyed themselves, it was the forces of nature.
ATB Dougie.P.S.Did you notice...In the last "Homeland" series, the "secret" services, whoever they were, used the control of a heart monitor to bump off one of the "opposition"? Such a "fictional" series must be having some kind of effect on the masses, don't you think... I heard the other day that Damien Lewis, was presented to POTUS in the Oval Office and actually asked POTUS if he would mind informing him if or when they decided to invade Iran...upset the secret service officers in attendance, apparently, kept pinching his bum and asking him to move on. Even the President is censored, apparently. Though the President did say..."Of course"...with a smile on his face...One never knows what is around the next corner... :-). I did wonder if Damien used his finger code, to pass on secret messages to the world, but as it was on the radio, I was unable to tell... :-).
On 06/12/14 18:53, John Young wrote:
Indeed. And every machine, heart monitor, subdermal chip, digital document, digital and audial code, warcraft (land, sea, air, undersea, space) has an EM signature. Some of the EM emanations can be dampened but not all. Warcraft may be degaussed or implanted with false EM devices (digital docs tagged withdiscoverable tags to hide the deeper ones), as can machines, computers,networks, peripherals, electronic things of all kinds, human and animal chipsand sensory prostheses (Google glasses, hearing aids, electronic limbs, voice boxes, therapy robots, baby monitors, on and on). Passive acquistion devices which emit no EM are challenging. The RU cavity resonating microphone planted in US Moscow embassy is ancient technology. Now as reliable astrology alchemy as the lie detector, kept alive for dupery. Counter TEMPEST technology is very much a black magic art, some of which may be at once true and false, only the emissaries of god can say so long as the tithes flow. A few years back the US Coast Guard built very expensive new ships which failed TEMPEST testing and costs tripled to provide that protection. Cryptome was booted from its ISP for publishing the reports of a private investigator who refused to conceal the failure.Other private investigators have lost nice contracts with FBI et al for refusingto conceal how the agencies deceive the public with advanced intercepttechnology applied below the radar of congressional and leakers disclosures.Not much will be done about public deception until the public controls its own privacy tools and stops relying upon industry and government to protectthem from industry and government. Online this is a particularly grievous practice by those who promote tools not wholly under the control of users, instead capitalize on producers of protection tithing with cooperation for lucrative contracts, then contributing to NGO promoters for tax reductions.Perhaps one day there will be an Internet, cellular and computer technologynot wholly devoted to spying on users. Perhaps one day we will have wearable, highly sensitive oscilloscopes to continuously sweep our personal space for bugs and EM siphons, like the digital warriors and warcraft do now. Racing to stay ahead of rapidly increasing EM emanation acquisition weaponry as well as the faux versions set up to persuade we are more or less protected.Perhaps one day national security will wither as a fashionista topic, or beconsigned to a throw-away, or easily blocked, section of religion of news outlets. At 12:50 PM 12/6/2014, you wrote:Hi John,There were a couple of other things I forgot to mention when you were asking about some advice for the guy who is worried about security and encryption.The first one is noise signatures. Every piece of electronic equipment has what is called a "noise signature". For instance thermal noise and working noise. Every microprocessor has its own unique noise signature, when it is working and when it is heating up. Modern forensic software can detect it and identify it. I forget where I read it but I am almost certain it was in one of the papers published on Cryptome...if not, a link from that. The second one is the noise which is the hum on the mains electricity frequency. This 50 cycles per second frequency has been used to identify suspects and as evidence to prosecute them. I think the particular case was when someone was using a phone, mobile or landline, I don't know, but law enforcement were able to pick up and amplify the background noise.. Apparently, the phase of the wave form on the mains electricity supply varies during the day and over different parts of the country, all the year round. There are no two places where it is the same. Forget where I found that one too, but there you are, no one is perfec... :-).ATB Dougie.
