US Government start using encryption

US Government to change mind on encryption

Well at the very least, they should.  

Ahhh the hacking over at the DNC, the hacking of the NSA linked spies, the IRS, the US military last year...it amazes me that our own government has not warmed to the idea of encryption.

One of the most appealing reasons consumers love encryption is because we feel safer having it.

In today’s world we have moved to a more technological way of living.

We shop online, pay for things with watches or phones, start cars with both, we can turn the air on or off in our homes from a phone, I can order Starbucks and pay for it all day long and go get it without having to say two words to anyone, we can even check our refrigerators from our phones.  

We can can monitor how well we brush our teeth or not, from a phone app, check our health, heart rate, eating habit, calorie intake, workout routine, or get a new routine, yoga instructions and start a pot of coffee all from a phone, watch or tablet, if not all three.

The way we communicate with one another is also a lot less verbal than it was 10 years ago and why pay for a stamp or actually talk on the phone when it’s just as easy to send a quick text or email, or chat on Facebook or Whats App?

While we are at all of this, we choose encrypted devices and services so as to better protect ourselves from hackers. We lock our cars, our homes, we keep our money in banks instead of under a mattress and we do that why?  

To keep it all safe from thieves of course. And that is how we view our messages, our data, our emails, our ability to shop online, to pay for things with our devices instead of a plastic card or paper and coin currency.

We have James Comey who still seeks a backdoor to encrypted devices and services when it’s warranted but we also see a telling reality that our government simply lacks the ability to be trusted should they ever be granted these backdoors. 

For the sake of argument if a government can’t bother to encrypt it’s own devices and data, any backdoor they were given, well that would be gone and into the hands of hackers at some point.

Last August FBI Director James Comey testified before Congress and said that that terror groups are in fact, using encrypted programs to hide their communications from prying eyes and that they are aggressively targeting young Americans online and they are succeeding.

So that really even last year wasn’t new news. If you ever ventured onto the dark web into the right places, you sort of already knew that.

So instead of look at the actual real underlying issues as to why any young American would want to join a terror group like ISIS, we want to tout that encryption is bad. It’s evil and so so bad and it allows these bad guys to communicate...secretly.

That means, our government fears it. Rather than try to learn it much less outsmart it, they want to instill this fear. Yet I look around me and I see the guys at organizations like Apple, Whats App, Facebook, as well as many others working with encryption daily, making it smarter, easier for me to work with, understand and use. 

And I along with many others trust it. 

Ahh but here is the catch, these organizations make encryption user friendly to a consumer, instead of something to be feared. They are giving me exactly what I want and they have a great track record so I trust it.

So personally, I tend to feel that our government needs to come forward a few decades in terms of really understanding encryption, society and how we use things like, technology. 

Some within our Government think that encryption puts us all at risk. I beg to differ, it’s our government’s lack of knowledge that does, not encryption.

Should companies like Apple, work with any government entity when faced with an issue like opening an iPhone for let’s say a person who committed an act of terror?

I vote for yes but only to an extent. They should help them open a device or message only if certain extreme conditions have occurred such as an act of terror.

Should they create backdoors and hand them to the FBI? Not at this point because our own government can’t be trusted with it and simply does not have the ability to secure it.

If a backdoor is needed to get into anything, its much safer at the company that created it and not ever in the hands of anyone at our government. 

If our government creates a backdoor at some point (highly doubtful, very highly doubtful) fine. 

The biggest issue however, is that our own government lacks the knowledge to deal with encryption, they can’t use it, don’t understand it and are reacting more out of fear than with knowledge.

According to Edward Snowden the recent hack of the NSA could be a warning from Moscow. By the way it's good to see Edward back and tweeting again. 

If what he says is true, our government truly doesn't have what it takes to defend us when it comes to the cyber world. 

As far as I can tell the issues and problems are not encryption, not in the least.

It’s the criminals and more importantly, that our government has been caught with it’s pants down over things like emails where what was said in them should have never been sent in an email if you didn’t want to get caught in the first place.

Emails that should have never been on a server that could be hacked, messages that should have been on an encrypted device, maybe?

If the most recent hacks have not opened our government's eyes from the slumber of ignorance they have been in, I am not sure what will. 

I really think that our government needs to start being part of the solution instead of the problem since hackers keep catching them with their pants down. 

Cristal M Clark

IOS users can find The Crime Shop onApple News

@thecrimeshop

ISIS is planning attack on US air bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain

ISIS is planning attack on US air bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain

That's according to an Israeli cyber-intelligence group who have reported to media sources that they have breached Telegram group on the dark web, which is run by jihadists.

It is rumored that the Islamic state uses Telegram to organize operatives and to disseminate terror attack plans among 500 of its leading activists.

According to the Israeli company who breached Telegram, the Islamic State uses the site to upload potential targets to the group. They reported that in recent months some of the targets have been hit by individuals claiming allegiance to the terror organization.

One of the targets found during the hack was the recently attacked church in Normandy, France where Father Jacques Hamel was murdered by the terrorist group. The Israeli cyber-intelligence group says that the attack on the church was planned months ago according to communication found on Telegram.

This brings us to cyber-intelligence/cyber-security, you can’t have one without the other and quite frankly, the US is falling way below the bar on both fronts.

Both Israel and Russia are reported to be two very powerful forces in terms of cyber-intelligence, cyber defense and cyber-security. China, North Korea, Iran all rank higher than the US.

In fact, Iran is considered a dangerous cyber threat to the US.

ISIS is using the dark web to communicate with its followers. ISIS is not the only extremist group using the dark web for communications either.

Our country would be best served if our Government would better align themselves with countries who are more capable at cyber-intelligence and security and the cyber-security firms in those said countries. We are all better served if we could learn to work together with these other countries and firms to fight the war on terror and to thwart cyber related crimes in general.

Think about it, other countries have surpassed the US when it comes to both cyber-intelligence and cyber-security for years and we don’t seem to be moving at all. These other countries have also set up cyber defense and the programs they have are not for the faint of heart.

Today Business Insider ran a story with a headline stating “The terrible recovery from the Great Recession is due to Congress’ economic incompetence.” I bring that to your attention because it is in fact true, Congress is out of touch with the realities of our world on all fronts, that includes cyber security, intelligence and defense. 

The media is partly to blame here as well, I mean if the FBI asks for a change to a law the media  makes it out to be the NSA is spying on all of us all the time...

Recently the FBI did ask for a change to the a law that pertains to being able to access someone’s browsing history and other electronic data for certain types of suspected crimes.

Of course the media had a field day with it, they lead everyone to believe the FBI was going to be able to access browsing history from anyone and everyone, all history, see the sites you visit, the pages on those sites and who knows what else...turned out that was not even close to what the FBI could actually access if they had been granted the change and the request was denied, rightfully so.

The reality was, the intel they could have obtained from this change was so rudimentary it amounted to basically the FBI obtaining no useful intel at all. The intel the FBI would have gotten was so rudimentary it would have been a waste of time.

The fact is, between all of us throwing fits over our “rights” which we completely take for granted and confuse with privilege, the media blowing things out of proportion and congress’ incompetence when it comes to cyber-intelligence and security, it is no surprise that we aren’t even close to the bar in terms of cyber defense.

Then we have encryption, I am not against it and I am also not for it when a crime has occurred. I believe that ways around it are needed when you are dealing with an ongoing investigation. I also believe that if our government has ways around it, which I agree at times they should, we need oversight so that, that power it is not abused.  

We want our government to protect us and be able to defend us from cyber attacks of all levels and kinds,  and we want them to be able to thwart terrorist attacks, yet we are the first to accuse them of taking away our rights and freedoms if they come up some new tool to us to obtain data intel which is part of cyber security.

We refuse to meet in the middle and we refuse to better align ourselves with other countries who are far more superior to our own with cyber defense and capabilities.

A lot can be said for the argument that some things a government does should be kept secret from it’s citizens because sometimes the citizens of that country are simply not ready to know or come to terms with the truth.

Our government needs to be able to learn and utilize tools as much as they can without the media or us citizens assuming they are spying on us. They also need to learn to work with countries that are superior to us in terms of cyber defense long before we can begin to protect this nation from cyber attacks.

We need to give them permission to learn it and use it. They can’t learn it if they aren’t using it, and they are not using it because we prevent them from learning it.

It’s almost as if we truly do enjoy being reactive, we love to walk on the edge and expect someone to catch us when we fall.

We as a country need to come to grips with the reality that cyber crime is on the rise and will continue to rise. It will become more scary and dangerous and once the ability to hack falls into the hands of these extremist groups, it will forever change the playing field. 

Until our nation becomes better at cyber defense, security and intelligence, my money is on the other guys finding out about a planned attack long before we do.

Cristal M Clark

@thecrimeshop.com

IOS users can find The Crime Shop on Apple News.