Osama Bin Laden Didn't Encrypt His Files

An anonymous reader writes "If you're running a terrorist organization, it might make sense to encrypt your files. Clearly Osama Bin Laden didn't realize that — as some of the documents seized during the raid on his hideout in Pakistan have been made public for the first time. 17 electronic documents, which were found on USB sticks, memory cards and computer hard drives after US Navy Seals killed the terrorist chief in the May 2011 raid, are being released in their original Arabic alongside English translations by the Combating Terrorism Center, reports Sophos."

Obligatory XKCD

[Anonymous Coward]

http://xkcd.com/538/

Re:Security through obscurity

[Black Parrot]

Is this FreeRepublic.com now?

~S

Yes, but we're still arguing over whether it's Free Beer Republic or Free Speech Republic.

Re:Security through obscurity

[Anonymous Coward]

"I have no idea ..."

You could have stopped right there.

Re:Security through obscurity

[zero.kalvin]

So getting killed for not encrypting your files is the new punishment ? God those IT admins are angry!

Re:Security through obscurity

[Nidi62]

Is this FreeRepublic.com now?

~S

Yes, but we're still arguing over whether it's Free Beer Republic or Free Speech Republic.

Free Beer Republic. Because that way you'll be so drunk you won't care and will say whatever you want regardless.

Don't forget steganography

[Chuck Chunder]

I bet that "evil plans" sub directory is really a front and there's some serious man on man action pictures hidden inside those files.

Re:Security through obscurity

[flyingsquid]

This place has always attracted the conspiracy-minded. I think that there are more high-IQ people here than average, and high-IQ people like to find patterns. There is also a high correlation between paranoid schizophrenia and IQ. Conspiracy theories are really just grand pattern-finding exercises.

So you're saying that this forum naturally attracts conspiracy theorists and gives them a place to vent their conspiracies. That would be awfully convenient if there was an organization working in the shadows that needed to monitor people's communications to make sure that none of the conspiracy theorists had accidentally stumbled onto the truth. All they'd have to do is monitor this forum and then disappear anybody who got too close. Awfully convenient indeed....

Perfectly hypothetical, of course. Anyway, I'd write more but I have to go, it's 2:00 AM and for some reason somebody is banging on my door and I better see who it is.

Re:Security through obscurity

[Compaqt]

You forgot the #!#NO CARRIER

Re:Security through obscurity

[interkin3tic]

You sound like one of those people who actually believe we landed on the moon! WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!

Re:Security through obscurity

[JustOK]

Forgot the what???? OMG, they got Compaqt !

Re:Security through obscurity

[V-similitude]

Actually, it turns out that Osama bin Laden was just a really really deep cover FBI agent, trying to entice people into committing terrorist acts in order to later arrest them.