[nycbug-talk] Crypto Anarchy

[George Rosamond]

Charles Sprickman:
> On Apr 30, 2013, at 6:01 PM, Mark Saad wrote:
> 
>> All I was rereading Tim May's Crypto Anarchy manifesto 1. While
>> still relevant today there are a few things that date his work and
>> I wonder if anyone could comment on them. He mentions Ku-Band
>> transmitters , I assume he is talking about satalite microwave
>> based communication but what system , is there or was there some
>> form of this available to common users or just governments ?
> 
> In many parts of the world, satellite internet is common.  I can't
> speak to it directly, but I believe that in Iraq it's still quite
> common and I would guess that in somewhere like Iran, it's probably
> your only option for unfiltered internet.  It's expensive and I
> believe Ku is not the preferred band anymore.  Anyhow, a fascinating
> topic.

Well, in terms of unfiltered internet, the most common solutions are
VPNs from external countries plus Tor.  Satellite data is costly for the
average person.

For the US military and associated, they do use a lot of satellite
comms, with the still horrible latency, AFAIK.

> 
> Here's some dated pricing from the Amazon dude with a boat:
> 
> http://blog.mvdirona.com/2009/06/21/RemoteDataCommunicationCosts.aspx
>
>  And this site looks like it's from 1998, but seems to have somewhat
> current information:
> 
> http://www.satsig.net/
> 
> Lots of options in the Middle East:
> 
> http://www.satsig.net/ivsat2.htm
> 
> No pricing though…
> 
> It's certainly not anonymous, but it is a way to bypass the
> local/state telecom.
> 

The real scary thing about satellite comms is the tracking.  A bunch of
phones were apparently sent to assist some dissidents in one particular
country, and meanwhile, their adversary bought the access codes from
another country, which turned them into essentially homing devices.

"Hey, here's a sat phone!" was replaced with "Hey, here's a target on
your head!"

> Charles
> 
>> Also tamper-proof boxes , is he referring to hardware or the
>> concept of say tar'ng up a file encrypting it and signing it ?
>> 
>> In any case I wonder what today's readers take away from this text
>> .
>> 

I think a lot of dated solutions are relevant again.  Need to bypass a
country shutting down internet access?  Dial-up modems.  A bunch of ISPs
were providing free dial-up numbers in Egypt when the pipes were shut,
and it worked.

Someone who used to be around NYC*BUG but moved far away was stockpiling
"analog" hardware, and I mocked him.  Well, a lot of decent
circumvention solutions now retreat back to older hardware...

So I have a tangent from that...

Are there any screws that can act as physical "alarms" in a sense.  I
don't mean security screws, like "tighten only" ones or Torx
tamper-resistant (which are all over the newer subways), but rather
screws that could be screwed in, and it would be impossible to hide if
they were opened?

I know it sounds crazy, but think about remote, uncool colo situations.

g

>> 
>> 
>> 1. http://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html