[Cryptography] Insecure email might be an even bigger problem than we suspected

[mok-kong shen]

Am 06.10.2016 um 22:09 schrieb Tom Mitchell:
>
> Yet the location of a POT is physical and fixed.
>
> Perhaps a phone with a removable battery.
> Location services for emergencies are essential.
> Location services that invade life not.
>
> My old flip phone has no GPS but it has an easy
> to access battery compartment.   It would be quite easy
> to make an adapter with a switch.   Cell tower spoofing is
> part of law enforcement's tool kit so it seems that cell tower
> location logs could be called into question.
>
> The dumb thing about smart phones is the battery life.
> I often shut mine down as a result.
> In meetings and class rooms I use OFF rather than a silent mode.
> Reception is so often terrible that the phone is hunting it's little brain
> away so off is a win for battery life.
>
> On the security side of things we should watch the impact of
> the storm on the US east coast.   Reliable communications are critical
> for safety.   Location services can be valuable....
> Watch the legal process -- propose laws or pose questions that manage
> and audit
> data access by law enforcement. Documentation, need, criteria, misuse is
> well balanced
> by punishment.   Extra ordinary events seem to be the gate for abuse of
> process.
> Process should facilitate good and necessary behavior and block the bad
> individuals
> that have some keys and appear to be in authority.
> Communication from shelters, is it facilitated or are shelters
> warehoused individuals in limbo.
> SMS if nothing else should just work.
>
> Today I heard that some DOT regulations ware being suspended in FL, GA & SC.
> That is wrong what I want to hear is DOT regulations have a plan for
> emergencies.
> i.e. We ( a governor in this case) are invoking these planned and
> documented emergency
> rules based on documented criteria to facilitate the transport and
> delivery of emergency goods.
> It is a subtle mind set change that I believe is necessary.
>
> Encryption of first-responder and emergency management communications.
> Was encryption used, necessary, reliable, did it hinder or help?    Were
> these communications logged and audited  or does secrecy hide details
> necessary to plan for the next event?  Compartments?  Agencies?

The benefits/necessity of location determinations you mentioned are
clear. However, long before the upcoming of smartphones, I read in
German news a warning by someone that the location of a mobile phone
could be tracked even when it is switched off and that removal of the
battery would be necessary. The warning was given in connection with
commercial espionage. Later I learned that there are Faraday bags,
rather cheap to be purchased (perhaps their quality need be tested),
so that one could switch-off and put the phone in it during time
periods when location tracking is undesirable. Another possibility
is wrapping the phone in a number of layers of aluminium foils.
BTW I learned that certain commercial firms nowadays have conference
rooms whose walls are specially constructed to act as a Faraday cage
so that no mobile phones in it can work.

M. K. Shen