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Covert wireless (was: A crowdfunding campaign to build a free baseband)
by wirelesswarrior＠Safe-mail.net 10 Apr '15

10 Apr '15

"The device in your purse or jeans that you think is a cellphone — guess again. It is a tracking device that happens to make calls. Let’s stop calling them phones. They are trackers." https://www.propublica.org/article/thats-no-phone.-thats-my-tracker SF, Most mobile phone users (like most citizens) are more than willing to sacrifice their privacy for convenience, socializing and entertainment. Educating them and changing their behaviours will, in the long run, probably bring the most benefits. Cypherpunks have been rather poor at this. A sucessful multiplayer game, requiring the use of criminal/spy/intel tradecraft and security tools, would be a great first step. Once these players integrate these tools and skills into their daily lives and pressure friends and family to do likewise it could prove insideous to law enforcement and intel agency privacy violations and turn the tide. Having a fully open mobile phone is good first step which can improve privacy when used with existing mobile networks but its only a first step. Alternative networks (e.g., WiFi mesh and open femtocell networks) are an obvious direction for improvement but their build out is problematic. Another way is to enable alternative communications that either need no infrastructure (think amateur radio) or covertly utilize existing commercial services (I mentioned pagers in my last post). The mobile phones would offer excellent user interfaces and processing the element of an affordable and flexible software radio transceiver. I delivered a paper last October regarding the reasons such alternatives are needed, reviewed recent developments and offered some practical directions for future work (some of which I am pursuing): http://www.paralelnipolis.cz/pp-congress-2014/WWPP.pdf Feedback from you and readers of this list is kindly sought. WW -------- Original Message -------- From: falcon(a)ivan.Harhan.ORG (Spacefalcon the Outlaw) To: wirelesswarrior(a)Safe-mail.net Cc: cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org, Blibbet <blibbet(a)gmail.com> Subject: re: A crowdfunding campaign to build a free baseband Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2015 06:56:09 GMT > Hi WW, > > > Although creating an open GSM mobile modem is an interesting technical > > exercise [...] > > I take offense at the way you trivialize it. It is not just "an > interesting technical exercise", but a way to dramatically improve the > quality of life for cellphone users. > > Yes, I realize that it is possible to live without cellphones. I lived > without them for the first 20-odd years of my life, so I know it's > possible. But like many others, I am now addicted to the ability to > call my significant other or receive calls from her no matter where I > am. > > Yes, it's an addiction, and arguably an unhealthy one, just like drugs. > In that light my project may be seen as a harm reduction measure. If, > for example, a person is addicted to injectable heroin and won't quit > no matter what, it would be better to have that person receive his/her > heroin injections in a safe medical setting than to buy junk on the > street and inject it with dirty needles. It's called harm reduction. > > By the same logic, if a person is addicted to the always-on reachability > provided by traditional cellular networks and won't give it up no > matter what, it would be much better if s/he can connect to these > cellular networks using free software (in the FSF definition) than the > utterly proprietary kind that all commercial handsets ship with. > > In my own case, I am a cellphone addict, and my quality of life is > currently very negatively impacted by the proprietary software running > on my cellular phone handset. The rest of life is completely free > from proprietary software: no Windows, no MacOS, I run Slackware on my > x86 devices and I also greatly enjoy my 1980s VAX minicomputers running > my own version of BSD UNIX. My home Internet connection is served by > a modem which I designed and built myself - Open Source Hardware, of > course. But the moment I would like to pick up the phone to call my > dear significant other and tell her how much I love her, I have to use > a device that runs proprietary firmware. This situation causes me an > enormous amount of distress. > > I seek to improve my quality of life by freeing it (my life) from > proprietary software. The cellphone in my purse (I'm M2F transgender) > is the last frontier. The handset hardware (it's a Pirelli DP-L10) is > absolutely perfect for my needs, but the proprietary firmware ruins it. > I need to replace this proprietary firmware with one which I compile > from source myself and which I can improve as my needs evolve. > > I hope that I am not the only cellphone addict whose quality of life > can be improved by replacing proprietary firmware in the handset with > free software. When it comes to freeing my own life from proprietary > software, I can do it on my own without any crowdfunding. I already > have an Openmoko phone and about 15 Pirellis, so I have everything I > need. But I very much hope that the number of people who can benefit > from my work is greater than 15, and if it is, then my available stash > of Pirellis won't be enough. > > If there are more than 15 people in the world whose quality of life > can be improved by replacing their handset proprietary fw with free > sw, then we need to build our own hardware to solve the problem of the > pre-existing old models being in too short supply. This hardware work > is what costs money, hence the crowdfunding campaign. > > Thus regardless of whether my crowdfunding campaign succeeds or not, I > *will* have a phone in my purse running 100% free firmware. But if > anyone else would also like to have such a phone, we need the > crowdfunding campaign to succeed so we can build more phones than the > 15 or so Pirellis in my stash. The matter is now in your hands, where > "you" refers to the community at large. > > > PS: Suggest you enable lower contribution steps for crowd funding. They are > > too high for many who might like to help but cannot afford or justify the > > current steps. > > There are no "steps"; one can donate as little as $1. Those who donate > $100 or more can opt to receive a "perk" (Indiegogo term) as a reward > for his/her donation. > > I am not able to offer perks for donations below $100 as the cost of > fulfilling those perks would eat up the money and there would be little > if anything left for the actual project, defeating the purpose. > > SF

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Kickstarter - Konekt Dash: Cellular Dev Kit + Free Global Data Plan
by wirelesswarrior＠Safe-mail.net 10 Apr '15

10 Apr '15

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/konekt/konekt-dash-cellular-dev-kit-fr… The Konekt Dash is a cellular development kit for building Internet of Things (IoT) devices. You can use it to build all sorts of fun connected products like sensors, tracking devices, alarm systems, connected car applications, and more (see examples below). The Konekt Platform is made to bring enterprise grade features to the individual developer, so its perfect for a solo hobby project or building the connected hardware business of your dreams! Each Konekt Dash comes preloaded with a Konekt Global SIM and 6 months of our basic data plan (1MB/month or 6MB total). If you need more data, thats cool too; we have great carrier agreements already in place to provide super affordable connectivity at higher data levels (check the deets below for pricing). The Konekt Dash will work anywhere you get a cellular signal and can easily and securely communicate to the internet or other devices via the Konekt Cloud. Get started right away by choosing the SIM-only reward tier or one of our Cellular Ardunio, Pi, or Beaglebone Kits. These rewards ship in May following the completion of the campaign.

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Stingrays & Hailstorms
by Henry Rivera 10 Apr '15

10 Apr '15

Police and state prosecutors publicly acknowledge (albeit implicitly in some cases) that they fail to disclose their frequent use of spoofed mobile phone towers in criminal cases, which is very much in violation of constitutional law on searches and law addressing disclosure in criminal proceedings. They assert they can do so because the Feds told them to. What other illegal surveillance are they routinely conducting and using in the service of prosecutions that they fail to disclose? http://phys.org/news/2015-04-baltimore-police-surveil-cellphones-secrecy.ht…

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12 communities experimenting with mesh networks
by wirelesswarrior＠Safe-mail.net 10 Apr '15

10 Apr '15

Whether to get around traditional ISPs or to bulk up resiliency in the event of a disaster, these mesh networks are worth knowing about. http://technical.ly/2015/04/06/12-communities-experimenting-mesh-networks/

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Greenwald, Scahill step down from The Intercept
by Seth 09 Apr '15

09 Apr '15

It's about damn time ;) http://chronicle.su/2015/03/07/greenwald-scahill-step-down-from-the-interce… INTERNET — Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill announced they were leaving The Intercept, Saturday, citing conflicts of interest with Pierre Omidyar, founder and owner. In an exclusive interview with the Internet Chronicle, Scahill said, “Firstly, I’m sorry to the folks at Pando. I ran my mouth off on twitter, but then I did my research and it was obvious that The Intercept’s founder, Pierre, was off fomenting world wars in Ukraine on behalf of the US government. I can’t report on anything and take money like that.” Scahill heaved a sigh of relief and his eyes watered, “When I came to Glenn and told him why I had to step down, he laughed and told me, ‘Your bravery is inspiring,’ and then he said how guilty he was at backing Tor, a pseudo-activist internet cloaking device built and maintained by the US Navy.” Greenwald apologized to Yasha Levine of Pando, who reported on Tor’s funding, saying, “I know I called you a conspiracy theorist, but I was just shooting from the hip. I’m sorry for that. I had backed Tor for too long. I now know that you’re basically right. Tor is a military-backed project working towards the military’s ends and I was a useful idiot that drew in countless thousands by promoting it. And Pierre Omidyar, he was always pushing me to put Tor into my stories even when it didn’t fit. The guilt will haunt me to my death, but at least if I speak out now I can minimize the damage to others, even though it damages me personally. It isn’t easy to admit you’ve been accidentally doing propaganda work for the US military, but it sure is a relief to get away from The Intercept.” Greenwald’s eyes twinkled as he said, “Snowden’s dream can finally come true. We’re going to do it, finally. We’re going to publish the list of people who are in prison because of the NSA’s illegal parallel investigations, and they’re going to go free, god dammit!” Both Greenwald and Scahill remain upbeat and have already joined the staff at Internet Chronicle, where they will take a massive pay cut and forego all bylines for a year in an act of voluntary penitence as they work on freeing the victims of illegal NSA wiretapping.

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Voting machine hacks
by Douglas Lucas 09 Apr '15

09 Apr '15

As U.S. election approaches...what are your least/favorite examples of hacks of (esp. U.S.) computerized voting systems? You know, technical ones, not propaganda and the idea of democractic voting itself. BlackBoxVoting.org has an interesting collection of PDFs[1] of technical material, including manuals, schematics, and troubleshooting, for various voting system manufacturers, plus reports detailing problems. (There are also the more straightforward non-technical issues, like allowing people to actually watch the vote-counting.) There's also the instance[2] of hackers putting Pac-Man on the Sequoia AVC-Edge DRE voting machine without breaking any of the tamper-evident seals. Finally...in honor of all elections, to use a corporate term: blue-sky thinking. If you were going after (esp. U.S.) computerized voting systems, what would you do? Douglas [1] http://blackboxvoting.org/reports/voting-system-technical-information/ [2] https://jhalderm.com/pacman/

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Vulns of social/freedom initiatives, NSA 0wn3d CPUs, BTC, Infra and Politic
by grarpamp 09 Apr '15

09 Apr '15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-_KVkQfm-o http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/31umjo/3m_video_are_intel_processo… http://invisiblethingslab.com/press/itl-press-2009-03.pdf http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/vegas-toys-part-i-ring-3-t… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHFSvttMg6E http://www.iamsatoshi.com/ https://www.youtube.com/user/IamSatoshiNakamoto http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/ http://re.silience.com/

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Re: cypherpunks Digest, Vol 22, Issue 6
by tigrutigru＠gmail.com 08 Apr '15

08 Apr '15

Loosely related to Mike Ingle's mention of Twister and Bitmessage - made me think of Secure Scuttlebutt https://github.com/ssbc/phoenix based on gossip protocol. Sent from my iPhone > On 6 Apr 2015, at 7:02 am, cypherpunks-request(a)cpunks.org wrote: > > Send cypherpunks mailing list submissions to > cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://cpunks.org/mailman/listinfo/cypherpunks > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > cypherpunks-request(a)cpunks.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > cypherpunks-owner(a)cpunks.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of cypherpunks digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Dollar Value of a Datamined "Free" Service User? (rysiek) > 2. Re: Dollar Value of a Datamined "Free" Service User? (grarpamp) > 3. Re: Dollar Value of a Datamined "Free" Service User? (grarpamp) > 4. Re: Dollar Value of a Datamined "Free" Service User? (rysiek) > 5. Re: Warrant Canaries (grarpamp) > 6. Forward secrecy implemented, was Re: How to have your > encrypted mail in two places at once (Mike Ingle) > 7. Re: Greenwald, Scahill step down from The Intercept (Mirimir) > 8. Re: Greenwald, Scahill step down from The Intercept (Juan) > 9. Re: Greenwald, Scahill step down from The Intercept (Cari Machet) > 10. Fwd: The West's Shame (Александр) > 11. Re: The West's Shame (Zenaan Harkness) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 05 Apr 2015 18:14:31 +0200 > From: rysiek <rysiek(a)hackerspace.pl> > To: cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org, cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org > Subject: Re: Dollar Value of a Datamined "Free" Service User? > Message-ID: <2015159.YdJg2uZ1UC@lapuntu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Dnia wtorek, 24 lutego 2015 23:51:52 grarpamp pisze: >> (...) >> Anyone have links to studies made within the last five years that >> have attempted to calculate the dollar value of datamined users? > > Have a look around here: > http://www.inrialpes.fr/planete/people/lukasz/ > > -- > Pozdrawiam, > Michał "rysiek" Woźniak > > Zmieniam klucz GPG :: http://rys.io/pl/147 > GPG Key Transition :: http://rys.io/en/147 >

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Re: Greenwald, Scahill step down from The Intercept
by John Young 08 Apr '15

08 Apr '15

>my problem with laura as with jeremy is that they are too >capitalistic and therein breech ethics That's the crucial fault of the Snowden campaign, its corrupt core, ambition and greed triumphant. Snowden is paying the high price for others' profit. A nadir in contemporary journalism seemingly without bottom. Meanwhile obsessive handwringing about petty story fabrication, as if to avoid the principal fabrication of 2013-2015, instead praising, awarding, investing, promoting, recycling, gaming, streaming, TEDing, Oscaring, glorifying, comedifying it.

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Massive License Plate Databases
by grarpamp 08 Apr '15

08 Apr '15

https://cdt.org/blog/government-keeps-its-eyes-on-the-road-with-invasive-li… On April 2, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) that describes how the DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – including ICE’s primary investigative offices, Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations – will find the present and past location of drivers by accessing a massive private database of vehicle location information. The program raises serious privacy concerns, with the specter of individuals’ location data being collected on a mass scale, stored for a prolonged period, and used without effective restrictions. According to the PIA, both fixed and mobile license plate readers record license plate number, a digital image of the license plate, the vehicle’s make, model, and state of registration, GPS location, a time stamp, and sometimes “the environment surrounding a vehicle, which may include drivers and passengers.” A private company – probably Vigilant Solutions, which has amassed of database of 2.5 billion license plate location records, will hold the data. ICE can then use license plate numbers to query a database, and provide a “hot list” of license plate numbers under surveillance to the private company so that when there is a hit on one of those numbers, ICE will receive immediate notice of the location of the license plate. Queries can uncover all recorded sightings of a license plate for the previous five years, or as far back as the statute of limitations for the crime being investigated. ......

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