An interesting development over the weekend in the aftermath of current events:
When the new generation of consoles launched, there were concerns that they would be too light on privacy, with peripherals like Microsoft MSFT -0.93%’s Kinect and PlayStation’s Camera possibly having the ability to spy on users if say, the government wanted a window into your living room.
While the idea is certainly Orwellian, it’s the non-peripheral based communication on consoles which may provide terrorists a channel to effectively converse with one another. The comparatively low-tech system may offer a more secure means of communication than even encrypted phone calls, texts and email.
Hmm. How about that. ISIS, just like it’s leftist brethren swine running roughshod on college campuses, is exploiting a weak point through it’s familiarity with youthful means. And make no mistake, the Left and the Islamist have a long, loving history of using each other as useful idiots.
What do we learn here? Well, as pointed out in the article, there’s a weak point with their means. What’s not stated is how we figured this out; the answer is that we already knew. The tree may have many branches but it’s rooted somewhere. That somewhere would be the IP address first, among other routes. That means NSA. And that means justification for further civil intrusions on everyone except the people they should focus upon.
On your end, know that your enemies are learning. They’re asymmetric. And getting better fast. The further off grid and more in control you become of your own communications, the better off you will become.
The capability of using video games for secure Comms has been known for a while now…
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/03/20/terrorists-use-online-games-like-call-duty-to-plot-attacks.html
So, per the usual, someone dropped the ball. As well, per SOP, we’ll be forced to give up more Liberty, allowing the bad guys another victory.
At any rate, I foresee encryption being on the “unlawful” short list in the near future.
Yeah, all of what you just said was what I was getting at.
The thing is that while it sounds clever to the uninformed, and it is indeed thinking outside of the box, the method itself has an inherent vice.
Absolutely. When the media started mentioning using PS4 for secure comms, I knew I had heard a security analyst mention the need for monitoring these forms of communications a few years back.
Here’s another article for anyone who’s interested:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2486632/cyberwarfare/the-nsa-tracks-world-of-warcraft-and-other-online-games-for-terrorist-clues.html
Knowing, as we do, that this isn’t a new thing, though as you mentioned how it sounds novel to the uninformed, again, with all the surveillance capabilities available, through the cracks the bad guys slip…
All these types of occurrences vindicate William Binney’s assertion that directed, targeted approaches yielded better results than the worldwide, anything-goes, net.
It’s like the difference between trying to DF with a Yagi, and an Omni.
One is going to yield mo’ bettah information, one is just going to give mo’ information.
Makes me wonder if it’s grotesque incompetence, greed, malice, or a mixture thereof.
Yep.