[Cryptography] And they're off...

Tom Mitchell mitch at niftyegg.com
Tue Mar 22 12:12:05 EDT 2016


On Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 7:58 AM, Phillip Hallam-Baker <phill at hallambaker.com
> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 8:57 AM, Perry E. Metzger <perry at piermont.com>
> wrote:
> > I've already heard news commentators wondering if the Brussels
> > attackers used "cryptography".
> >
> > The security community has its work cut out for it.

...

> > And please remember: the press has been convinced this is about some

> sort of abstract desire for privacy vs. everyone's security, when in
> > fact this is about having the security we need to keep the world
> > safe vs. no one other than criminals having security.
>
> Where are you seeing this? All I could find was this:


This is sad event.

Yes education on crypto is necessary but I fear it is a media SOP topic.
Because it is volatile and because it arrives with no content it
is possible to spin nothing into ratings.  Rinse lather repeat.

Yes law enforcement watches the news and yes they are people
and subject to magical thinking and dogmatic thinking no different
than the population.   The bell curve of foolishness is different  in law
enforcement but
all the good and bad groups well represented.  Judges also live in
information bubbles

On magical thinking, A recently aired TV CSI show had a line close to:
"Give me a couple more minutes.  This is 128 bit encryption
and I almost have it".   These shows are set in today's context not in
a star trek future world.

On the reality front:
ISIS is claiming responsibility.

The morning news is full of tidbits that attacks were expected by European
officials.  Known suspects
evaded arrest for months and that the support network was vastly larger
than expected.

Most recently:
March 18, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/world/europe/salah-abdeslam-belgium-apartment.html
and other sites report.
In Belgium, Saleh Abdeslam was considered a hero by some Muslims in the
Molenbeek district of Brussels, where he was captured.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/most-wanted-terrorist-europe-arrested-riots-ensue
"Unsurprisingly, Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported that "the whole
neighborhood" knew where
Abdeslam had been hiding since the Paris attacks, and no one alerted
authorities."

Feb 4, 2015
"BERLIN — An Algerian man suspected of training with Islamic State
terrorists in Syria and of
planning an attack in Germany was taken into custody at a refugee shelter
in North Rhine-Westphalia
early Thursday as hundreds of police officers carried out raids in three
German states, the police said."


-- 
  T o m    M i t c h e l l
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