Economic Totalitarianism

[trollercoaster]

...

TPTB and friends

15 years ago I was able to use all kinds of fun and interesting software that was either FREE or cheap.  And easy-to-use (important to those of us who are not tekkies).

One program was Zimmerman's PGP.  It was free and easy to use.  But, none of my friends (none of my friends are programmers or otherwise tech-savvy) so I was never able to USE PGP.

I took a quick look around via Google to see if there was free & easy-to-use encryption software for email, but was not able to find any obvious candidates.

You guys have any suggestions re email encryption software?  Especially easy-to-use...

*   *   *

I also miss the cheap (or free) AND easy-to-use data analysis programs (SPSS: now $2000 or so, and an "OLAP" program to analyze database data that cost me just $100, now it would cost MUCH MORE).

Also, I bought Microsoft's SQL Server 2000 (w/ another OLAP program included in it) for just $100 or so back then.  SQL Server 2000 will not work on modern Windows versions...

Frustrating that the software in 2000 was better, cheaper and more available than in 2015!

+ 1 life without windows is better & linux is easy to use.
Google will help with installing certain softwares.

[TPTB_need_war]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet_%28software%29

It is utilizes Tor hidden services which have been broken by the NSA. Tor and I2P are not reliable anonymity. Do not rely on them. As well, they are probably honeypots so using them brings you to the attention of the NSA.

Someone please post a link to this post over in the Monero thread so they can come over here to address it. I don't want to shit on their thread. I am not criticizing Monero per se. I am technically criticizing I2P when deployed against a high-powered adversary such as the NSA. I am disappointed in whom ever made this decision for marketing reasons (apparently) without sufficient engineering investigation.

I2P (which is relied on by Monero to insure your anonymity) has updated their detailed summary of potential attacks. That looks really bad (as I had expected). I wouldn't trust for that for obfuscating who sent a message to whom in the face of a powerful adversary and neither do they...

I am thinking about fixing this and helping Monero (and Bitcoin and every cryptocurrency) before I continue work on another coin. So that will demonstrate I am not attacking Monero and I am not selfish. It would also demonstrate my (or my small dev group's) coding skills to everyone. But that is not yet a promise. I am exploring this option now.

Note this past week nearly no symptoms from the Multiple Sclerosis (other than fatigue that results from working 100+ hours per week). So the strict Paleo diet I am on appears to be helping.

[Hueristic]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet_%28software%29

It is utilizes Tor hidden services which have been Allegedly broken by the NSA. Tor and I2P are not reliable anonymity. Do not rely on them. As well, they are probably honeypots so using them brings you to the attention of the NSA....

Fixed, The question was not what is uncrackable but "free & easy-to-use encryption software for email". The only thing I would trust is paper/pencil in a closet with a flashlight and a lighter to be NSA proof. And I'd sweat that as well.

But thank you for your correction.

[generalizethis]

Someone please post a link to this post over in the Monero thread so they can come over here to address it. I don't want to shit on their thread. I am not criticizing Monero per se. I am technically criticizing I2P when deployed against a high-powered adversary such as the NSA. I am disappointed in whom ever made this decision for marketing reasons (apparently) without sufficient engineering investigation.

I2P (which is relied on by Monero to insure your anonymity) has updated their detailed summary of potential attacks. That looks really bad (as I had expected). I wouldn't trust for that for obfuscating who sent a message to whom in the face of a powerful adversary and neither do they...

How do you plan to stop IP leakage with I2p? (A decentralized IP ring signature would be nice--seriously though, would a market solution built on top of I2p help unlink all the transactions? Or does the whole structure need to be overhauled/fine-tuned/scrapped?)

I do take issue with the bolded part as there is TOR (even worse) and I2p, so it is like choosing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump (though, who knows how to order their awfullness)--AFAIK the Monero Devs are working to improve I2p function with Monero not just integrating the two--so without knowing how they are or are not planning to improve the IP functionality, how are you sure if the criticism isn't already addressed....

I would like to read their response and how you plan to improve the functionality as this is a huge opportunity to improve financial privacy.

[smooth]

Someone please post a link to this post over in the Monero thread so they can come over here to address it. I don't want to shit on their thread. I am not criticizing Monero per se. I am technically criticizing I2P when deployed against a high-powered adversary such as the NSA. I am disappointed in whom ever made this decision for marketing reasons (apparently) without sufficient engineering investigation.

The plan to integrate I2P was not "for marketing reasons" it was simply hat I2P is the most suitable extant solution to provide a higher degree of network-level privacy than sending everything in the clear.

If you develop something better or someone else does, then we'll be happy to use that too. We're not going to just stand still and do nothing because the perfect solution doesn't exist, nor does the plan to use I2P constitute some sort of endorsement that I2P is 100% bulletproof (which they don't claim nor do we).

[generalizethis]

Someone please post a link to this post over in the Monero thread so they can come over here to address it. I don't want to shit on their thread. I am not criticizing Monero per se. I am technically criticizing I2P when deployed against a high-powered adversary such as the NSA. I am disappointed in whom ever made this decision for marketing reasons (apparently) without sufficient engineering investigation.

The plan to integrate I2P was not "for marketing reasons" it was simply hat I2P is the most suitable extant solution to provide a higher degree of network-level privacy than sending everything in the clear.

If you develop something better or someone else does, then we'll be happy to use that too. We're not going to just stand still and do nothing because the perfect solution doesn't exist, nor does the plan to use I2P constitute some sort of endorsement that I2P is 100% bulletproof (which they don't claim nor do we).

I started a link here: https://www.reddit.com/r/i2p/comments/3cw3wm/discussion_i2p_and_ip_obfuscation_from_economic/

Hopefully, we can move toward a best-standard or a new solution that works better for everyone.

[TPTB_need_war]

smooth okay I understand to add I2P for privacy since it will probably adds privacy against adversaries not as powerful as national security agencies. I think I did allude to that in my detailed post.

They did not design I2P to be anonymous to powerful adversaries, rather they designed it to be a performant, low-level network layer for basic privacy.

My issue is that so many people think that means I2P (thus Monero) is safe against the NSA (and the 5 Eyes countries and the German Stasi which is still active btw), which is what I mean by marketing (whether untended or not). I wanted to make clear I2P can't be relied on for that threat model.

I am contemplating building a more secure high latency anonymity network and not what I had described to you many months ago.

I am also not satisfied with Bitmessage. It doesn't even run on one of my ISPs here. Quirky, has to be downloaded, and doesn't run out-of-the-box on Linux. Python is a horrendous choice for cryptography (ewww).

generalizethis thank you. I have no more time to expend on extraneous discussion (especially with noisy n00bs who think they are senior system design analysts). I know what needs to be done. No slow consensus politics needed. I can just go straight to implementing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet_%28software%29

It is utilizes Tor hidden services which have been Allegedly broken by the NSA. Tor and I2P are not reliable anonymity. Do not rely on them. As well, they are probably honeypots so using them brings you to the attention of the NSA....

Fixed, The question was not what is uncrackable but "free & easy-to-use encryption software for email". The only thing I would trust is paper/pencil in a closet with a flashlight and a lighter to be NSA proof. And I'd sweat that as well.

But thank you for your correction.

Sorry but you are again misinformed:

https://blog.torproject.org/blog/thoughts-and-concerns-about-operation-onymous

Information Theoretic Security is reliable against any attacker no matter how powerful. Please be more informed before erroneously incorrecting me. Note still need to make sure Sybil or spam attacks can drive down usage thus weakening the size of anonymity sets (one of my criticisms of Bitmessage).

OROBTC you can run Windows programs on Linux with varying success:

https://www.google.com/search?q=run+windows+programs+on+linux

[TPTB_need_war]

This Linux works almost like Windows:

http://www.linuxmint.com/

I prefer the MATE version not Cinnamon.

[minor-transgression]

Theoretically mixmaster should provide good enough anonymity if
used with pgp. Most Linux based mailers eg Mutt, include hooks to
process both pgp and transmit via mixmaster.

For Mixmaster to be effctive, messages (encrypted) are passed though
several mailhosts and eventually delivered (encrypted) anonymously
to the recipient.

Regrettably, any encrypted message or any posts to remailers are
going to be like walking around with a ladder on your shoulder in
a thunderstorm.

If things are really that bad, emigration might be the best option.

[minor-transgression]

The best thing about M$Access is the front-end. There are other
SQL based applications, postgresQL, mySQL that will run on both
Linux and on Windows, though I speak only from Linux experience.

The WINE application may allow some of the M$Access code to
run on Linux, but I have not checked the current situation. It
is unfortunate that making the transition requires far more skill
than setting up an maintining the systems afterwards.

HTH. Apologies for the OT.

[minor-transgression]

The TTIP vote. They knew it would not get through, despite the details being
kept secret.

Then, after a few weeks, the vote goes through with a huge majority. What?

What happened to get several hundred of the EU lawmakers to change their minds?
And how did those pushing the TTIP know they could get the votes? In a couple of weeks?

The more I think about this the more suspicious I become - make that paranoid.

[smooth]

My issue is that so many people think that means I2P (thus Monero) is safe against the NSA (and the 5 Eyes countries and the German Stasi which is still active btw), which is what I mean by marketing (whether untended or not). I wanted to make clear I2P can't be relied on for that threat model.

I'm pretty sure that every significant discussion of I2P and Monero has stated that won't make it NSA proof.

I'm also pretty sure that merely improving a mixnet won't make something NSA proof either. The threat model is much wider than that.

[smooth]

smooth okay I understand to add I2P for privacy since it will probably adds privacy against adversaries not as powerful as national security agencies.

It certainly does that.

I think I did allude to that in my detailed post.

Yes you did.

My issue is that so many people think that means I2P (thus Monero) is safe against the NSA

People are going to think what they think. Many think that Bitcoin is anonymous. i2p has certainly never been sold as NSA-proof and furthermore without knowing the totality of NSA's capabilities you can never correctly describe any implementation of anything as NSA-proof. Even most pure cryptography can't be proven to be secure, and once you get into implementation the potential vulnerabilities explode.

[Hueristic]

Nothing is safe forever, ever.

This is moving along quickly.

http://www.tau.ac.il/~tromer/radioexp/

[klee]

As AnonyMint I was the guy in the Anoncoin thread in 2013 (as kLee can attest) making the point their I2P integration lacked high-latency protection against timing attacks. Now 2 years later we are still in the same predicament.

I can confirm this!

[harlenadler]

UK to Ban WhatsApp Messaging Service

The UK is ready to ban WhatsApp thanks to the Investigatory Powers Bill, also known as “Snoopers Charter”. This new act will allow the government to ban instant messaging apps that refuse to remove end-to-end encryption. The British want to peek at what everyone is doing for taxes. They already have signs all over stating they are hunting tax evaders.

This is why governments don't like bitcoins, they want everyone to hold the opinion that "privacy doesn't matter when you have nothing to hide." But the reality is that if, for example, I chat to someone who is a known political activist strongly critical of some government. Due to the government's surveillance and social media, it can be supposed that my assosiation with this person becomes easily determinable by entering a few keystrokes. I have done nothing wrong, I could have just been talking about the wheather, and yet I think my chances for employment may have just decreased and my chances of an unpleasant encounter next time I interact with the police or border guards may have just increased.
Furthermore, an even more likely scenario is that, knowing that were I to go to talk to this person, I would be making it known to all the government agencies that are reading the messages, I am less likely to do it. The fact that I am being watched has just served to stifle dissent. I didn't do anything wrong - shit, I didn't do anything at all in fact, and yet I had something to hide.

Although, bitcoin in and of itself is not anonymous, every transaction can be traced back to an address and is public. That's why I recommend that people should use mixers.

[TPTB_need_war]

I'm also pretty sure that merely improving a mixnet won't make something NSA proof either. The threat model is much wider than that.

Yes there are many possible vulnerabilities. I've been thinking about these for 2 years. I am a "can do" person. Now less words, and more "do".

I would like to read their response and how you plan to improve the functionality as this is a huge opportunity to improve financial privacy.

Give me 6 weeks to produce an alpha-stage product and a white paper, if I decide to proceed on improving the anonymity network as the first priority (which looks to be the likely decision as it helps everyone and is less confrontational than creating an altcoin first).

Nothing is safe forever, ever.

This is moving along quickly.

http://www.tau.ac.il/~tromer/radioexp/

Electromagnetic shielding around your computer can defeat this.

If the NSA has determined your location, you are already probably toast.

They key about IP obfuscation anonymity mixing is the NSA not knowing who is doing what.

I plan to be retired by the time the NSA starts trailing me. My essential work will be done over the next several months, then turned over to other devs to carry on. I need to make sure ALL of those other devs can not be identified.

As for future-proofing, then wider keys such as 512-bit ECC and super singular isogenies against quantum computing can be considered.

Theoretically mixmaster should provide good enough anonymity if
used with pgp. Most Linux based mailers eg Mutt, include hooks to
process both pgp and transmit via mixmaster.

For Mixmaster to be effctive, messages (encrypted) are passed though
several mailhosts and eventually delivered (encrypted) anonymously
to the recipient.

Regrettably, any encrypted message or any posts to remailers are
going to be like walking around with a ladder on your shoulder in
a thunderstorm.

If things are really that bad, emigration might be the best option.

Is mixmaster even a reality? I can't find any info about a network of servers offering that functionality.

Mixmaster is not a properly designed solution. Period. I will not explain the white paper now. Wait for it.

No we don't have to give up. There won't be any place on earth to emmigrate to. This totalitarianism is global this time. You have 3 axis powers pretending to be antagonists who are really working together to enslave the people, and between them their militaries can reach any corner of the globe. China has a huge standing army to deploy to South America, Africa, etc.. They will hunt you down.

[generalizethis]

That's why I recommend that people should use mixers.

You should stop recommending that. Joinmarket, shapeshift, and xmr.to are your current best bets, but even then, you aren't immune later entanglements and still have to be on watch that your IP isn't being monitored--check the last two pages of this thread for more info. Even better start on page one and come out the other side extra-paranoid/extra-knowledgeable/extra-wtf.

Give me 6 weeks to produce an alpha-stage product and a white paper, if I decide to proceed on improving the anonymity network as the first priority (which looks to be the likely decision as it helps everyone and is less confrontational than creating an altcoin first).

 
Wish you could say more, but I'll kick rocks for awhile and keep myself busy....

[TPTB_need_war]

This is the most interesting article I've read in a long time:

http://asia.nikkei.com/Viewpoints/Perspectives/How-China-renationalized-its-economy

State-corporate fascism via taxation. Welcome to Economic Totalitarianism in China. This is the model of the coming NWO.

[Hueristic]

Nothing is safe forever, ever.

This is moving along quickly.

http://www.tau.ac.il/~tromer/radioexp/

Electromagnetic shielding around your computer can defeat this.

I guess portable faraday cage's have a market.

No we don't have to give up. There won't be any place on earth to emmigrate to. This totalitarianism is global this time. You have 3 axis powers pretending to be antagonists who are really working together to enslave the people, and between them their militaries can reach any corner of the globe. China has a huge standing army to deploy to South America, Africa, etc.. They will hunt you down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8MO7fkZc5o