Back doors for governments?

[GreyGeek]

It's on Slashdot... a story about a leaked memo...

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/0...to-governments

[dibl]

Re: Back doors for governments?

Heh heh heh -- if that is true, there's going to be shuckin' and jivin' out of RINOA .... can't wait to hear the "policy clarifications".

[GreyGeek]

Re: Back doors for governments?

And they won't have Jobs infameous "Reality Distortion Field" working for them, either.

[eggbert]

Re: Back doors for governments?

I find it hard to believe, but if its true... wow, just wow... it should be HUGE news.

[ScottyK]

Re: Back doors for governments?

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft has also provided back doors to our government, in exchange for not getting harassed about being a monopoly.

[SteveRiley]

Re: Back doors for governments?

You guys had to know I'd be coming along with something to say here, right?

Two more points.

* If you research this further, you'll encounter a tool called COFEE. This is not a BitLocker defeater, despite what some reports claim.

* Tools that claim to crack BitLocker or TrueCrypt or whatever all rely on one thing: that they can extract the encryption keys from the computer's RAM. Once the computer is powered off and about 15 minutes elapses to allow the capacitors backing the RAM to discharge, these tools are useless. Thus, if you use a drive encrypter, you should disable sleep (hibernate is OK) and you should use a multi-factor key.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Back doors for governments?

The Nebraska Highway Patrol called me and asked if I would "unlock" the data on the hard drive of the computer they confiscated when they raided a Bookie's house. The bookie was using an app that bookies in states where gambling is legal use. It encrypted its data specifically so that anyone who steals the computer still won't be able to read the data. The NHP had tried to unlock it with various decryption tools but failed.

The officer led me into the room, pointed me to the computer and then left the room and closed the door so that it could not be claimed that a law enforcement officer was around to "salt the mine", so to write. Five minutes later I walked out of the room and announced that the data was unlocked, submitted my bill of $100 (mid 80s, probably equal to at least $500 today). He asked how I did it. I told him that in Nebraska my secrets are not illegal, smiled and left. I did a lot of business with the state.

What did I not tell the officer? I saw a phone number for the software house that wrote the app in the app's GUI and called them, told them what I was doing, and they supplied me with THEIR back door password. I didn't even have to use social engineering to talk them out of it. And, I wasn't going to dissuade the officer of his conclusion that I was a wizard.

[HalationEffect]

Re: Back doors for governments?

Once again, good old XKCD has something pertinent to say:

[img width=400 height=244]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/security.png[/img]

Sometimes the low-tech solution is best.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Back doors for governments?

GG

two items.

a) I love your wordcraftmanship....; so to write

b) as to your solution....rotfl, rotfl, rotfl, rotfl

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

Re: Back doors for governments?

....
b) as to your solution....rotfl, rotfl, rotfl, rotfl
....

The simplest solution is usually the best...