Showing posts with label security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label security. Show all posts

Security devours freedom

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

14479765_655052154674847_4338337349472694382_nA flock of sheep is in the enclosure and the mother ewe asks: “Children, do you know why we are surrounded by barbed wire?” “I know, Mom!”, says one of the lambs. “That is there to keep the terrorists out, so that we can enjoy our freedom in peace.”

The terrorists hate us for our freedoms we are being told and in order to fight them and to keep us safe we have to give up our freedoms piece by piece to the powers-that-be.

The powers-that-be press the people to clamor for more and more security and protection by creating more and more threats and claiming that in order for them to be able to protect us they need to have access to all our telephone data, our Internet data, and more and more surveillance of all our lives, of everything that we do. We must, we are told, to give up more and more freedoms for which the terrorists hate us here so much.

Well, the way things are going there will soon be nothing left anymore for them to hate us any longer. We will have given away all those freedoms, more or less voluntarily, to be safe from terrorists (and criminals).

All those CCTV cameras neither deter crime, nor do they help to solve crime, and they definitely do not stop terrorism. Neither will broad telephone intercepts, especially on cell phone networks, and data collection and retention. But it will make “1984” look like a children's story.

Incrementally our freedoms, that we are being told the terrorists hate us so badly for, are being eroded and removed and the people, in general, by clamoring for more and more safety and security, having been first scared by the powers-that-be into believing all those threats and dangers, are playing right into the hands of the elite whose aim is to remove our freedoms from us.

More and more surveillance, data retention, monitoring of everyone's Internet activity and (mobile) telephone calls, and whatever else they are going to come up with next is not there to keep us, the public, safe but to monitor everything that we do just in case that we get ideas above and beyond our station.

It is all about people control and has absolutely nothing to do with making and keeping us safe from terrorist attacks or such like. How can any of those measures prevent a suicide attacker carrying out his “mission”? It cannot and will not. In the same way that police and soldiers on the streets, even in armored carries, won't. If you shoot a suicide bomber the bomb goes off, if you challenge him he will detonate it. Off it goes in any case and there will be victims.

None of those measures are designed to keep us safe. They are designed to keep us controlled and to keep us in a perpetual state of fear.

© 2017

Former NSA contractor develops font designed to combat government snooping

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

ZXX-Font-1372075525-0-11Sang Mun is a former contractor for the NSA. Mun created the font as a response to increasing government incursions on privacy. “I have become dedicated to researching ways to ‘articulate our unfreedom’ and to continue the evolution of my own thinking about censorship, surveillance, and a free society,” he explained to Reason Magazine, after releasing the font online in June 2013.

The font is intended to work by throwing off Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software with the unique and noisy style.

This font is reckoned to be a great weapon in the war on America’s privacy. It is encouraging to see such proactive measures being taken. You can download the font for free, here.

Below is an open letter from Mun explaining his reasoning for disseminating the ZXX font.

I do not know what OCR system the “author” of the fonts has used but in tests of converting documents written in any of those fonts, turned into PDF and then using an OCR extractor in a program the material was read back perfectly. This leads me to believe that it may work as far as letters are concerned but not for emails or other electronic communications. Especially after having used the font to write an email also and upon receipt it was nicely in clear text.

If you really want to avoid government snooping it would appear that we need to develop codes, like the spies of old did, using numbers derived from books that the sender and the recipient use as base, that is to say the book cypher. And, the book cypher is almost impossible to crack by electronic means as the finding of a message still attached to a dead carrier pigeon of WWII showed. The code cannot be broken without knowing the relevant book or books used to generate the code and not even the most sophisticated computers that the NSA or GCHQ use cannot do it.

Whether this font will be able to throw off the scanning software intend for storage of intercepted material will remain to be seen. The one that scanned from PDF to text that I used, a free program, did it with ease and even with the version with the greatest amount of “noise” of this font.

The jury is still out on this, I am sure. Thus, if you want to securely communicate use a good book cypher and change the books used all the time.

You should have at least six different books from which to generate the cypher – though you don't use those books all at the same time – and your communications will be uncrackable. You then use a number code, either five or six digits, corresponding to page number, number of line, and word in that line. Simple but basically uncrackable.

Use the font by all means if you want. I will do too. By mixing the font versions, as indicated in the picture, however, throwing the system off may be possible. But real important stuff will be sent in code.

© 2014

Be safe, be secure

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Our safety and security first and foremost is down to each and every one of us ourselves and we must get that message across to the governments also and we must take responsibility for it (and be allowed to do so).

slapperPeople, however, have abdicated their own responsibilities to the government, local and central, and ask for more and more liberties to be taken away from them so that they can feel safer.

Crime prevention is the job of each and every one of us and should not be farmed out to some agency. It used to be that way. The law and its enforcers should only come in as a last resort.

That means that we must deny any potential thief or burglar the opportunity to commit a crime against us and the same goes as far as attacks, such as robberies and muggings are concerned.

Walking about town and country with earplugs in and listening to an MP3 player or iPod not for safety makes. In fact it makes you vulnerable as you are no longer (fully) aware of your surroundings and any potential attacker realizes that as well.

After the leaks, in June 2013, about the NSA and FBI, even in the UK (and elsewhere), spying on people using the Internet the President of the USA, Barack Hussein Obama, states that in order to have the security required people have to be prepared to give up (some of) their freedoms. That is how the powers-that-be have gotten to us already in that people have, as said, abdicated more and more of their freedoms to the governments because they, the people, are not prepared to be responsible for their own security and safety. Not that many governments will even permit that anymore.

In a ruling some years back the US Supreme Court stated that it is not the job of the police to prevent crime but that it is the police's job to enforce the law and this is more and more the case, done by methods the Nazis would have been proud of.

So, if crime prevention is not the task then why the CCTV and all that jazz which is supposedly there to fight crime? Because all that surveillance stuff is only there so they can spy on the people.

In a statement a US official said that they are not using CCTV and other methods to spy on all American but only on anti-government Americans. And how precisely are the cameras and other electronic eavesdropping devices distinguish between a “good” and a “bad” American? Think, people, think. Government does not have our safety and security at heart with all those measures but the total control of the people.

The protection of ourselves and that of our loved ones rests with us and we must wrest the powers back from the governments in order to be able to provide for ourselves in this, and other, departments.

The state is not our friend when it comes to safety and security; the opposite rather. More and more the state is reducing our own ability to defend ourselves more and more under the guise of needing to provide security and safety for all, by more and more methods of control over the means at our disposal.

A people who can, and who are prepared to, take care of themselves are a threat to the powers-that-be, that is to say the state and those that rule from behind the smokescreen, and it is for that reason that any attempt of the people to do things for themselves is being undermined.

A free people have the right and the duty to defend themselves and to look after their own affairs without anyone lording it over them. However, the people themselves, in the majority, have abdicated their rights to the governments by demanding more and more protection which they, the people, are not prepared to provide for themselves and thus we have all those restrictions to our liberties that we have no, with more of them in the offing.

In Britain self-defense has more or less become a thing of the past and people are told to call the police rather than to take actions themselves. In fact, defending against an attacker or burglar, who then may end up getting injured, could land the victim in jail rather than the perpetrator and this is purely and simply wrong.

While the law states one thing the interpretation of it by the prosecuting authorities and the judges more often than not is a different thing altogether.

Theoretically civilians can defend themselves and even arrest, by use of restraints, such as handcuffs even, a criminal, the practice often is very different indeed with the victim having to defend his or her action rather than the perpetrator being taken in, no questions asked.

Going prepared for defense is seen as carrying offensive weapons, even if this is just a stick or cudgel though there was a time when this was the way everyone went about their business in Britain, including in the cities. The cudgel was a common accoutrement of the gentleman and trader and it was the same in the countryside where every man and boy did carry such as defensive tool and it was accepted that this was the case.

City areas where patrolled, even when the police was already established, by vigilance committees, armed with cudgels, in order to provide security for residents and most able males were enrolled in such committees. What is more, it worked. Then the powers-that-be decided that it was the job of the police, and only of the police, to provide security for people and ever since then we have had problems.

It is up to each and everyone of us to do what is right and to claim back our powers that rightfully belong to us.

© 2013

Defensive Landscaping

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

What do we mean by defensive landscaping?

In military terms this is also referred to as the killing zone, which is a cleared area around a base. But this is not the way it works in the civilian setting of protecting a property.

However, to a degree similarities exist but there is more to it when it comes to landscaping for protection and defense than barbed wire and such as in protecting a military base.

Defensive landscaping has your security at heart and is intended to make it as hard as possible for an intruder or assailant to reach you in your home, which is supposed to be your castle. And, yes, a moat is a good idea also at times but not always practical.

Much like at an FOB (Forward Operating Base) and other military installations you chose what you want to be your perimeter to be around your homestead. The closer you are to your neighbors the narrower the margin but that is the way things are.

The first part of your defensive landscape is going to be the fence, on, in this case you plant a hedge. If you need an instant perimeter protection then, obviously, we start with a good solid fence and depending where you live, rural, semi-rural, sub-division, or whatever, the size depends on what you can put up.

If the instant one is required then we start a hedge behind it and this hedge is going to be made of any type of thorny shrub that will grow where you live and will make what is called a stock-proof hedge.

No one in his or her right mind is going to try to go through a four foot six to five foot hedge made up of the nastiest thorns possible.

My choice of plants would be:

  • Hawthorn

  • Blackthorn

  • Berberis (Nature's barbed wire, as far as I am concerned)

  • Pyracantha (Firethorn)

All of those, bar berberis, can be laid, as is the common practice to create stock-proof hedges and laying a hedge will make for a closer structure. Having berberis mixed inside of it will make anyone think more than twice about trying to get to your home that way.

Aside from the protection factor all of those shrubs I mentioned above have berried which the birds love, bar the Blackthorn, which are sloes which can be used to make Sloe Gin. So some for the birds and some for the man or woman.

Directly behind the hedge, as far as I am concerned, should come a ha-ha or haw-haw, which is a sunken ditch to impede any access even further.

All paths should be gravel or pea shingle, which means that no one can approach the house itself silently, even if he or she crossed planted areas. The house itself should be surrounded by a wide strip/path of shingle or gravel which will make a silent approach entirely out of the question.

In the previously mentioned ha-ha or haw-haw it would be a good idea, is possible, to plant vegetation that also can impede anyone falling into this, after managing to cross the hedge, such as Maguey, which is an American agave and one variety is known as Spanish bayonet. I would not like to fall into one of them.

If you really want to make the defensive landscaping extra tight, so to speak, then plant hedges aside all of the paths. This will give anyone attempting to cross to the hose itself even more difficulties, especially at night when the obstacles are not, necessarily, easy to see.

Gates and other means, including man-made obstacles, fall under a different category of perimeter defense and those also include electronic means, such as sensors. It is all a case of “horses for courses”.

© 2013

Geo-location is potentially major security risks

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

If you value your privacy and your security (not just your online one) then do not use geo-tagging

According to IT security and compliance specialist Cryptzone geo-location tagging security issues are likely to be a major issue in 2012 – and that many users of smartphones are unaware of the potentially serious security consequences of their use of the technology.

Most smartphones now have native GPS/satnav features, the default setting for most pictures – and videos – taken with these devices is to embed the GPS co-ordinates along with the date and time that the image was taken. This can have serious security implication for the person, and his home.

It is saying to any criminal who might know where this person lives “hi, my home is empty... come and burglarize it.”

When smartphones upload these images to the Internet – to portals such Facebook or Flickr – there is a very strong chance that they will also upload the GPS data as well. This information could be subsequently misused by third parties, perhaps for stalking purposes, for general crime and even cybercrime.

Too many users of Facebook and other such portals put too much information on to those forums but with geo-location tagging a simple picture of one's home, one's place of work, etc., immediately makes it findable on any map and via a satnav.

Since most human activities online have some kind of a location aspect, this brings both opportunities and significant risks, especially when it comes to location tagging.

Many people are too careless already by putting way too much information into their profiles, whether on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, or wherever, which is one of the main reason why each and every holiday season the warning is being issued to them not to post pictures, etc., from their vacation spots.

Add geo-location tagging into that equation, and even just having the geo-location tagging used, and you have the recipe for disaster, including serious crime.

Cybercriminals are now starting to crowdsource information that is available on the Internet – using open source software such as Maltego – and then tying in geo-location data from photos.

Then you also have sites such as Youhavedownloaded.com – an open source data site – that lists the IP addresses of around 20 per cent of files that have been shared across the Internet.

So far Suren Ter-Saakov – the Russian IT expert behind this portal – claims to have crowdsourced around 50 million unique IP addresses that have file-shared all manner of music, video and software files.

And when you start to tie all this information together – related photo information, the GPS coordinates of where an image or video was taken, and the IP addresses of users – you start to assemble a pastiche of the user. From this data, you then can begin to assemble a profile of the user and what their habits are.

This is why geo-location data is potentially so dangerous, as it can be used to bolster other information that is available on the Internet, and which can readily be assembled using software like Maltego.

From there it is then a relatively easy step to perform a highly targeted phishing or similar type of attack on the individual – using information about their location, their interests and other data derived from, say, their Facebook profile.

Geo-location and -tagging brings with it many new opportunities, but there are significant and serious dangers associated with this pool of information. And no matter how many times the experts say it, this type of information is not as anonymous as you might think.

So, what do you do?

  1. You turn off geo-location tagging, whether on your smartphone or your laptop/netbook and you also do the same on Facebook, etc., where this possibility exists.

  2. You check very carefully as to what you have on information in your profiles, whether on Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, LinkedIn, or what-have-you, and make sure that you have minimum information on there only, and have the security settings, even with the minimum information, set to the highest settings.

Only the other day I have seen someone on a forum where I am a member, and – theoretically it is a members only one with the entire site hidden – where people are often rather paranoid, posting their personal telephone numbers and such. This is highly dangerous.

So, let's be careful out there and let's be careful what we “share” online.

© 2011