The more I read about the very public fight between Apple and the FBI, the more I become convinced the case merely represents the Lexington and Concord moment in a massive new crypto war. The surveillance state panopticon is extremely concerned that strong end to end encryption is increasingly being used in everyday consumer devices and applications, … Read more
In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, … Read more
Let’s go ahead and mentally store this in the “that’s fucking weird” file. From Bloomberg: The world watched in horror as the death toll from the Paris terror attacks steadily climbed. By the time the three-hour rampage ended on Saturday and authorities put the number of those killed at 129, onlookers could only brace for worse news … Read more
Speaking less than three days after coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris killed 129 and injured hundreds more, Mr. Brennan complained about “a lot of hand-wringing over the government’s role in the effort to try to uncover these terrorists.” What he calls “hand-wringing” was the sustained national outrage following the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden, a former National Security … Read more
Last week, the British Prime Minister told Parliament that he wants to “ensure that terrorists do not have a safe space in which to communicate.” Strong encryption refers to the act of scrambling data in such a way that it cannot be understood by anyone without the correct key or password — even law enforcement with a … Read more
“Are we going to allow a means of communications which it simply isn’t possible to read? My answer to that question is: No, we must not.” – UK Prime Minister David Cameron I’m not interested in this civil liberties stuff. If they’re a threat, I want their emails and calls listened to.” – London Mayor … Read more
By now, most of you have heard about the largest ever release of confidential CIA documents published by Wikileaks, known as Vault7. Many of you have also read various summaries of what was released, but reading the take of others is not the same as analyzing it yourself. As such, I strongly suggest you check out the original Wikileaks summary. … Read more
When Donald Trump was asked about Apple’s decision, Trump did not bring up the complexity of the situation, the constant battle between government and individual, between private and public selves, between technology and law enforcement. He did not commend Apple for trying to stave off government’s incursion into our personal details. He did what Trump … Read more
*Note: Since publishing this post, I was informed that Mike Hearn late last year had joined “investment bank-coin” private company R3. From Reuters: Five more banks have joined a global consortium working on ways blockchain technology can be used in financial markets, the firm leading the project said on Thursday, as it brought in experts … Read more
I’ve covered in detail how the U.S. establishment has been aggressively pushing against the American public’s right to private communications, i.e. encryption, ever since the terror attacks in Paris. This push continues unabated, with the latest shots fired earlier today by FBI chief James Comey at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. We learn the following from … Read more