[liberationtech] Join Stanford Crowd Course Initiative: collaborate and spread the ICTD knowledge with people around the world

2016-03-03 Thread Yosem Companys 
From: Rajan Vaish 

Want to demonstrate and share your knowledge while impacting education?
Help create a course on ICTD and spread the knowledge with people around
the world. Feel free to teach topics in crowd technologies, computer
science, data science, HCI or any other area - its up to you!

Join the Stanford Crowd Course Initiative to collaboratively create online
courses - receive valuable feedback & rec. letter from Stanford professors,
build a unique teaching experience, and get your work published on our
Stanford platform for a larger audience.

People from any department/industry are encouraged to apply. For more
information about this effort, please check out crowdcourse.stanford.edu,
or email Rajan Vaish at rva...@cs.stanford.edu.

Thanks,
Rajan and Crowd Course Team at Stanford

-- 
Rajan Vaish
Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University | stanford.edu/~rvaish
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Re: [liberationtech] unmonitored international communication?

2016-03-03 Thread George Kadianakis 
Seth David Schoen  writes:

> Carolyn Santo writes:
>
>> The recent talk about video games made me wonder about using them as
>> a communication channel that might not be monitored by repressive
>> governments.
>
> I've heard this idea is interesting to anti-censorship campaigners as
> well as to spy agencies.
>
> A disadvantage is that historically a lot of video game network
> protocols haven't been even transport-encrypted, let alone end-to-end
> encrypted.  So someone monitoring the network could likely even search
> for text strings in the traffic and find them, or in any case could
> develop software to interpret the game traffic.  This could change if
> more game protocols would run over TLS or DTLS.
>
> A further disadvantage is that the game operators themselves could
> monitor in-game communications and many of them probably have tools to
> do this, not least because multiplayer online games have been plagued by
> harassment and griefing and the game operators may want to have an easy
> way to review users' communications (which in turn can be applied to
> consensual communications too).  Jurisdictions that impose surveillance
> capability mandates (like the U.S.) may try to apply these to some kinds
> of in-game communications.
>
> An advantage is that some, but not all, surveillance systems may
> have been programmed to systematically discard most gaming-related
> traffic as uninteresting.  And any given game, especially one that's
> not super-popular, might be far down the list of platforms for which a
> particular surveillance system or organization develops analysis tools.
>

The above issues are indeed true. There are also engineering problems on
deploying closed-source video games along with open-source tools. Also NSA/GCHQ
have been tapping into WoW and Second Life for years now, but maybe that would
not be so easy for some censoring governments (e.g. China):
  
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/nsa-spies-online-games-world-warcraft-second-lifea

FWIW, here is a paper that somewhat explores this area:
  http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05904

They even made a PoC as Tor pluggable transport as it seems:
 https://github.com/bridgar/Castle-Covert-Channel
 
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/AChildsGardenOfPluggableTransports#Castle

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Re: [liberationtech] unmonitored international communication?

2016-03-03 Thread Seth David Schoen 
Carolyn Santo writes:

> The recent talk about video games made me wonder about using them as
> a communication channel that might not be monitored by repressive
> governments.

I've heard this idea is interesting to anti-censorship campaigners as
well as to spy agencies.

A disadvantage is that historically a lot of video game network
protocols haven't been even transport-encrypted, let alone end-to-end
encrypted.  So someone monitoring the network could likely even search
for text strings in the traffic and find them, or in any case could
develop software to interpret the game traffic.  This could change if
more game protocols would run over TLS or DTLS.

A further disadvantage is that the game operators themselves could
monitor in-game communications and many of them probably have tools to
do this, not least because multiplayer online games have been plagued by
harassment and griefing and the game operators may want to have an easy
way to review users' communications (which in turn can be applied to
consensual communications too).  Jurisdictions that impose surveillance
capability mandates (like the U.S.) may try to apply these to some kinds
of in-game communications.

An advantage is that some, but not all, surveillance systems may
have been programmed to systematically discard most gaming-related
traffic as uninteresting.  And any given game, especially one that's
not super-popular, might be far down the list of platforms for which a
particular surveillance system or organization develops analysis tools.

-- 
Seth Schoen  
Senior Staff Technologist   https://www.eff.org/
Electronic Frontier Foundation  https://www.eff.org/join
815 Eddy Street, San Francisco, CA  94109   +1 415 436 9333 x107
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Re: [liberationtech] unmonitored international communication?

2016-03-03 Thread J.M. Porup 
On Thu, Mar 03, 2016 at 12:46:58PM -1000, Carolyn Santo wrote:
> The recent talk about video games made me wonder about using them as a
> communication channel that might not be monitored by repressive governments.

You mean, like the US and British governments?

> Hope this sparks some useful ideas for people in need of a good way to
> communicate without being monitored.

whoops, looks like the fascist scum at the NSA and GCHQ already thought of that:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html
https://www.propublica.org/article/world-of-spycraft-intelligence-agencies-spied-in-online-games

jmp
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Re: [liberationtech] Silicon Valley Must Be Redistributed

2016-03-03 Thread Joshua Kopstein 
Silicon Valley is a garbage fire, but calling it the "greatest threat to the 
human race" and describing American authorities as uniquely predisposed to 
coerce the companies based on its soil is laughable. The answer to companies 
being coerced by the American govt isn't "more global businesses spread out in 
more countries that are not the US." If anything, the precedent that FBI v 
Apple sets will only embolden governments to obtain the same coercive power in 
other countries, including those more repressive than the US. (And those that

Any long-term solution in this area I believe has to start with completely 
decentralizing the technical infrastructure of software developments and 
updates. Otherwise we eventually wind up in the same spot with a different 
governments possessing and utilizing the same coercive powers.

J.M. Porup:
> The continued existence of Silicon Valley in its current form is the
> single greatest threat to the human race we face today.
>
> As the FBI v Apple fiasco makes clear, any Silicon Valley business can
> be commandeered, coerced to serve the surveillance apparatus. [0]
>
> The solution: We must disrupt Silicon Valley, redistribute innovation
> around the world.
>
> That's why we founded the LatAm Startups Conference. [1]
>
> Unlike many "entrepreneurship initiatives," our goal is not a
> thinly-disguised counter-insurgency program designed to create nations
> of shopkeepers.
>
> Our goal is to end the brain drain to Silicon Valley, to encourage the
> modern Janissaries on whom the empire depends to go home, to stay home,
> to build globally-scalable businesses from their home countries.
>
> Ensuring internet freedom is a business and political problem as much as
> it is a technical problem. And when the American secret police are
> hellbent on betraying every last principle of freedom that the country
> was founded on, it's time for you to pick up your toys and go play
> somewhere else.
>
> The third annual LatAm Startups Conf takes place in Mexico City in
> October. [2] To celebrate Conf 3.0, we're releasing 30 tickets for only
> $100. We expect tickets to sell out quickly, so if you're interested,
> grab one now. [3]
>
> Hacking for freedom means not just technical solutions, but business
> solutions. Startups are motivated by greed, but also by idealism. Show
> them a better way to make money--and avoid coercion--and they will take
> it.
>
> Hack the planet.
>
> jmp
>
> [0] https://medium.com/@toholdaquill/plunder-it-s-a-thing-b449485812bc
> [1] https://www.latamstartups.biz/
> [2] https://www.latamstartups.biz/conference2016.html
> [3] https://www.latamstartups.biz/tickets.html
>
>

-- 
Joshua Kopstein
journalist + researcher
http://lawfulintercept.net
PGP: https://github.com/lawfulintercept/contact

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[liberationtech] Stingray technology in use around the world?

2016-03-03 Thread Yosem Companys 
From: Steve Anderson 

Hi all -- I'm looking into Stingray/IMSI-capture
 technology use and
wondering if anyone on this list knows of examples of where it is being
used around the world.

I've started a document to crowdsource examples of StringRay use here if
anyone is interested in contributing:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B8HO8SSJrqJbmytsehStt-U3sw9KyLzHsehl9f81rDw/edit

Please add any examples you know about or email them to me. Examples I've
uncovered so far are also listed here below:


START:

Australia


   -

   Revealed in 2014
   


France (contemplated)

   -

   source
   



Germany (with oversight):

   -

   source 


Ireland:

   -

   Privacy International
    and The Sunday
   Times  reported on the
   usage of StingRays and IMSI-catchers in Ireland
   , against the Irish Garda
   Síochána Ombudsman Commission
   
   (GSOC), which is an oversight agency of the Irish police force Garda
   Síochána .[35]
   [36]
   
   -


India:

   -

   2010 report
   




   -

Libya

   -

   source 

Turkey:


   -

   Source 


UK

   -

   On June 10, 2015 the BBC  reported on
   an investigation by Sky News [37]
   
   [38]
   

   about possible false mobile phone towers being used by the London
   Metropolitan Police
   . Commissioner
   Bernard Hogan-Howe refused comment.



US.

   -

   Boston police promise to release information on cellphone trackers.
   Source: New England Center for Investigative Reporting
   
.

   February 29, 2016
   -

   The author of the Patriot Act asked the FBI to justify stingrays.
   https://twitter.com/csoghoian/status/702632206267719680

   http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/uploadedfiles/stingray_technology_letter.pdf
   February 24, 2016
   -

   NYPD Has Used Stingrays More Than 1,000 Times Since 2008. Source: NYCLU
   .

   February 11, 2016.
   -

   New York Police Have Used Stingrays Widely, New Documents Show
   
.
   Source: The Intercept
   
.

   February 11, 2016.
   -

   FBI says search warrants not needed to use “stingrays” in public places.
   Source: Ars Technica
   

   .
   January 5, 2015.


CANADA.

   -

   What is a Stingray and why should I care? Source: OpenMedia.
   March 3, 2015
   -

   The cell phone spyware the police don’t want to acknowledge. Source: Toronto
   Star
   
.

   December 15, 2015.
   -

   Vancouver police refuse to disclose use of covert cell spy tech.
Source: Global
   News
   

   .
   November 13, 2015.
   -

   Are StingRay cellphone surveillance systems used by Vancouver police?
   Source: CBC
   
.

   November 12, 2015.
   -

   Is the Vancouver Police Department sweeping up your cell phone data?
   Source: OpenMedia
   
.
   November 12, 2015.


--
*Steve Anderson*
Founder, Senior Strategist and Internet Governance Analyst
OpenMedia.org | *The Internet Needs You -->>* http://openmedia.org

604-837-5730
Follow me on Twitter 
Follow me on

[liberationtech] Silicon Valley Must Be Redistributed

2016-03-03 Thread J.M. Porup 
The continued existence of Silicon Valley in its current form is the
single greatest threat to the human race we face today.

As the FBI v Apple fiasco makes clear, any Silicon Valley business can
be commandeered, coerced to serve the surveillance apparatus. [0]

The solution: We must disrupt Silicon Valley, redistribute innovation
around the world.

That's why we founded the LatAm Startups Conference. [1]

Unlike many "entrepreneurship initiatives," our goal is not a
thinly-disguised counter-insurgency program designed to create nations
of shopkeepers.

Our goal is to end the brain drain to Silicon Valley, to encourage the
modern Janissaries on whom the empire depends to go home, to stay home,
to build globally-scalable businesses from their home countries.

Ensuring internet freedom is a business and political problem as much as
it is a technical problem. And when the American secret police are
hellbent on betraying every last principle of freedom that the country
was founded on, it's time for you to pick up your toys and go play
somewhere else.

The third annual LatAm Startups Conf takes place in Mexico City in
October. [2] To celebrate Conf 3.0, we're releasing 30 tickets for only
$100. We expect tickets to sell out quickly, so if you're interested,
grab one now. [3]

Hacking for freedom means not just technical solutions, but business
solutions. Startups are motivated by greed, but also by idealism. Show
them a better way to make money--and avoid coercion--and they will take
it.

Hack the planet.

jmp

[0] https://medium.com/@toholdaquill/plunder-it-s-a-thing-b449485812bc
[1] https://www.latamstartups.biz/
[2] https://www.latamstartups.biz/conference2016.html
[3] https://www.latamstartups.biz/tickets.html


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Re: [liberationtech] alkasir 2.0: One more anti-censorship tool launched

2016-03-03 Thread Nathan of Guardian 
Congratulations on the continued progress, especially the move to
audited open-source code and the adoption of Obfs4proxy. I really look
forward to the mobile app, as well!

On Wed, Mar 2, 2016, at 01:29 PM, Walid AL-SAQAF wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> After over a year of hard work, we've finally launched our BETA release
> of Alkasir 2.0 , a website censorship mapping and
> circumvention tool. We are still working on the mobile app and hope to
> have it launched this year.
> 
> The software went through a major transformation from a Windows-based
> closed program to a security-audited cross-platform open-source solution.
> It is still a BETA release and we do expect to get bug reports and
> feedback from users as well as an interest by developers to contribute to
> it via the Github repository at https://github.com/alkasir/
>  .
> 
> Here's a blog post on the launch:
> https://23c.se/our-blog/alkasir-20-free-speech-advancing-knowledge/
> 
> 
> As a software developer and a researcher, I find that understanding
> phenomena such as Internet censorship as equally important as helping
> citizens overcome such censorship. This is why I am always interested in
> publishing research on this topic, the latest being a journal article in
> the most recent edition of the Media and Communication Open Access
> Journal. The article helps shed light on the use of Alkasir to bypass
> censorship in Syria between 2010 and 2012:
> http://www.cogitatiopress.com/ojs/index.php/mediaandcommunication/issue/view/37
> 
> There are many people to thank for making this happen, especially the
> developer Thomas Frössman of 23Critters  and friends at
> Internews. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my good
> friend Eric Johnson who believed in the idea of split-tunneling from the
> very beginning and spared no effort to help me take it to the next level.
> Thank you Eric for your friendship and support over the years...
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Walid Al-Saqaf
> 
> Founder
> Alkasir for Website Mapping and Circumvention
> https://alkasir.com 
> 
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-- 
  Nathan of Guardian
  nat...@guardianproject.info
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