KGB Wants Control of Email and VOIP 129
blair1q writes "The FSB (really just a rebadged KGB) is worried about the abilities that internet communications services such as Hotmail, Gmail, and Skype give to people they consider black-hats. In particular, they don't like the fact that these services allow encryption. They say they aren't going to seize or block them, yet, but are just 'studying' the situation, with an eye possibly toward implementing controls like those in China. Their increased interest in the tools may be related to a DDoS attack on Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's own LiveJournal account, which he termed 'revolting and illegal.'"
Join the club, comrade (Score:5, Insightful)
The U.S. government wants the exact same thing [nytimes.com]. I'm pretty sure that almost every government at this point wants *at least* a way to bypass encryption, a "kill switch" for the internet in their country, and some form of email monitoring (all these without any pesky warrants, of course). If your country is an exception, count yourself lucky.
Re:Join the club, comrade (Score:5, Insightful)
If your country is an exception, count yourself lucky.
Count yourself delusional, more like... But if they think they can actually pull this off, the KGB is delusional. Encryption is out of the bag. The software for VOIP and e-mail is wide open. (FOSS) All it will do is drive people from Skype to Jitsi. (Or similar)
Re:Join the club, comrade (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Join the club, comrade (Score:4, Insightful)
The notion that people with nothing to hide shouldn't seek to preserve their privacy is one of many completely absurd beliefs anywhere, right up there with scientology. We give up too many rights because of ignorant points of view like this. The fact is, with no privacy at all, it would be a trivial matter to find something to put everyone away for. Go ahead, say you've never broken the law and gotten away with it. Make yourself a liar.
Re:Join the club, comrade (Score:4, Funny)
absurd beliefs anywhere, right up there with scientology
You are so sued!
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Go ahead, say you've never broken the law and gotten away with it. Make yourself a liar.
That's more likely ignorance than an outright lie. Given enough laws, everyone is a criminal.
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Under the Law, ignorance is no excuse..
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Under the Law, ignorance is no excuse..
Oh yeah? Then explain politicians!
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They're rich.
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Re:Join the club, comrade (Score:4, Insightful)
The "funny" bit is that those who'd need the most surveillance will certainly be exempt.
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The same murdering MOFOs still work for them, that have no concepts of freedom or 'hatred' for government controls. They think they are 'above' the elected government.
Oh and im sure their mothers beat them silly when young and didnt give them their potatoes.
KGB exists in Belarus (Score:2)
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Re:Join the club, comrade (Score:4, Informative)
> No one has ever heard of Jitsi or similar.
Now they, have, thanks!
http://jitsi.org/ [jitsi.org]
Skype doesn't work with my webcam, even though the OS supports it with other programs. My family (don't know about yours) won't mind installing Jitsi, ... win!
GNOME's empathy is another: http://packages.debian.org/sid/empathy [debian.org]
Pidgin too.
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"It's a lot easier to just" let the KGB or whatever alphabet soup guys listen to all my chat.
FTFY
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What, that you can't help people too apathetic to help themselves?
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Sure. They've got limited resources. While they're listening to me, maybe the real "subversives" are getting away. I take this one step further by eschewing email and chat entirely and just posting everything to slashdot... then the problem isn't keeping it secret, it's getting anyone to pay attention in the first place.
Re:ever heard (Score:2)
"That's right, don't use Jitsi. I repeat, don't use J I T S I. Or Debian Empathy. Emmmmmpathy."
Why are all the governments of 2011 acting like it's 1994 and the internet is this hot new thing to control after they sorta let it slide for 17 years? Separating forest from trees, all these gov desires are pretty low IQ. "MMMMM. Email. Gimme!" They couldn't have thought of that back when AOL was still the rage? Why now?
Theory: Fishbowl Effect. After we have finally had our fun with memes and made a fer .com do
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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girls, dont date spies or govt stooges (Score:1)
One simple solution, and if every girl ignores or doesnt date or marry any and all govt stooges / spies / LEOs. Then you will quickly see very few applicants to these agencies if it casts you as a 'virgin' outcast.
Or if you are already with one, leave em.
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Fishbowl Effect. After we have finally had our fun with memes and made a fer .com dollars, the endless years of hyperconnectedness are going to drag on with not even a religious apocalypse to distract us...
Life / internet: pretty much the same crap, over and over, forever.
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No one has ever heard of Jitsi or similar.
I have! But only one post ago...
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If Google etc allows ssl, and everyone uses it, and the emails themselves are encrypted, then the governments have a bit of a problem. They can outlaw it, require access etc. But then people can add proper encryption on top of that, but this won't stand out trivially because all the other emails will be encrypted anyway, so they'll have to get google to give them access to everyone's email, which will be hard to keep secret. This is probably what they're worrying about.
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If Google etc allows ssl, and everyone uses it, and the emails themselves are encrypted, then the governments have a bit of a problem.
Does that help? If the endpoints do the encryption, the path does not matter.
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If your country is an exception, count yourself lucky.
Count yourself delusional, more like... But if they think they can actually pull this off, the KGB is delusional. ...
Um. Notice how all these anti government protests are not in the following countries ... USA, Russia, China.
Moo.
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I think the difference is that we have them all the time. They did not until now, because it would get you shot.
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The government does, but businesses don't; and in the USA, businesses always win
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I might entertain the government having this power to invade my privacy, provided they don't get to do it in privacy themselves.
I think they should get a warrant specifying what they're looking for, and if they don't find what they're looking for they should be required to give you official notification that they've been reading your stuff.
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Similar, but not the same. It is highly doubtful that a Great Firewall of China will be coming up soon for the US, nor posts saying "$POLITICAL_OFFICIAL sux" would be rewritten in flight to praise $POLITICAL_OFFICIAL as they do in some other countries.
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Back in the USA (Score:4, Insightful)
And this is different from NSA, et al ... how?
Re:Back in the USA (Score:5, Funny)
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Indeed, it's not like they're sneaking into other countries and irradiating people to death or anything... oh wait.
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You should see what the CIA is doing.
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By extension, you should see what every secret service is doing. Ask Georgij Markov, Fidel Castro, or Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Oh wait, you can't: some people were doing their job properly (and with ruthless efficiency).
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Oh wait, you can ask Castro, provided you can reach him. Those ones fizzled...
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Sounds as if these guys are doing exactly what they should do; evaluating the Internet-related problems they face given their mission to protect their government's interests. I'd be shocked if every major national government doesn't have folks looking at the same problems.
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What bothers me is that the interests of the government and the interests of the people those governments allegedly represent clash almost head-on.
Re:Back in the USSR (Score:4, Insightful)
Trust me, we are all well aware of the failings and bad behavior of the US government. I see about ten articles a day about it. But don't ignore the serial killer next door because a loud, obnoxious, schizophrenic drunk is making noise down the street.
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I don't know if it looks like an attempt to make Americans look better, but it is clearly an attempt to make Russia look bad. First off, it wasn't reported anywhere that Medvedev said that no such measures would come to pass, even if the FSB ends up suggesting it after the end of the "studies". Second, statements like "The FSB (really just a rebadged KGB)" really does not help with objectivity. It's like saying, the French Foreign Legion (the one that was causing havoc in Algeria), or the CIA (America's cou
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Well it's their country and they have every right to do so. What makes you think it's ok to wiretap a phone line but it is not ok to intercept emails or other forms of Internet communication? First off Medvedev said that they aren't going to do anything to block them, but my point is, that even if they do, I would hardly call them irresponsibly. I truly believe that authorities should monitor everyone they deem dangerous to the safety of their citizens, that's why they are the government even if such resour
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NSA, FSB, KGB. Entirely different combinations of three letters.
PPH is the only one you should trust.
As opposed to how the US is handling it? (Score:3, Insightful)
The NSA has hardware in Google HQ and most likely other US data centers too.
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Clean up your own back yard before you go knocking on your neighbors door.
The NSA has hardware in Google HQ and most likely other US data centers too.
The speed which which they tracked down the Craigslist Killer shows it's really happening, it's really stored, it's all there for them to pull up when they need it. Including this post and you reading it.
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Hey guys! /waves at camera
Oh, I see ... you've been furloughed too.
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Citation needed.
Really. You are required to successfully infiltrate Google Headquarters and collect evidence. Shouldn't be too hard.
There's a geocache hidden there. Shhh!
Ahh ok (Score:3)
So you want Slashdot to report on nothing that is negative outside of the US, so long as they US does it as well?
Why? Just general US-hate?
Seems to me this is news no matter where it happens. I've seen Slashdot report on the US government doing plenty of stupid shit, including all the AT&T stuff, so why can't they also report on Russia?
freenet (Score:2)
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There is nothing a Government Spook hates more (Score:2)
than competition.
So the argument is made that the interwebs need control, a la Great Firewall of China.
In Post-Soviet Russia Freedom means more control over YOU.
Open PGP (Score:2)
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If the FSB / KGB, NSA, etc. come down too hard on Gmail, etc. then people who need or desire security will probably start using Open PGP or some other, stronger form of encryption. The smart spook should work on cracking the lowest-common form of encryption and try to get people to use it and think it's secure.
It's already at work ... and that is the stupidest password for a slashdot account I've seen this week.
I wonder... (Score:2)
Under these kinds of circumstances, hiding 'i
Sounds like a job for... (Score:2)
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I am reminded of a puzzle, where an ape is placed in a cage, with two possible ways of escape, as identified by those who placed the ape there to observe.
The ape found a third way.
Perhaps the best way to defeat someone nosing in on your conversation is to devise a simple way to communicate in code, which appears normal or actually creates such a massive barrier to decrypting your meaning that no software alone could handle it.
If I wanted to keep the Cage Bee out of my affairs I might actually resort to writ
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It also doubles as a good excuse. "No, I do NOT have two terabytes of porn, the pics are just so large because they hide my plans to become ruler of the world."
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> Now your porn collection can also double as personal data storage, what an awesome excuse for ever increasing collection!
I wonder if my wife would buy that explanation.
KGB? (Score:1, Flamebait)
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It isn't bigoted to point out that the former Soviet Union dissolved and that Russia still has a similar set of masters with zero hope for meaningful change.
Nazi Germany was defeated in battle. The Soviets merely "right-sized" after their economy shat the bed.
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It isn't bigoted to point out that the former Soviet Union dissolved and that Russia still has a similar set of masters with zero hope for meaningful change.
It's not particularly similar, aside from that both now and then ruling elites cling to power at all costs. However, the social and economical structure they impose on society is vastly different.
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totally different government entity that is stuffed[sic] by totally different people
It is a reorganized (several times) version of the same government entity. The KGB's employees weren't all fired and replaced by new people in 1991. The head of the KGB was fired, the organization was legally abolished and immediately re-established with a new name and head. The new head reorganized the units under him. It was later moved to be a unit of the Russian department of Justice.
When Putin became President he reorganized it again, and moved it to be directly under him. So a former KGB member w
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The Soviet were NOT strategically defeated in battle.
They left A-stan because it was not worth staying, and the government they began lasted a couple of years afterward. The A-stan casualty levels were quite tolerable, but as with the British and US, "trying to hustle the East" is a fool's errand.
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So yeah, of course Soviet Union didn't "lose" in Afghanistan, they pulled out, but what the hell does Afghanistan has to do with anything? Nothing, just like neither does conventi
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Moooooooommmmmmyyyy! (Score:2)
Chips and Dips (Score:2)
Slashdot (really just a rebranded "Chips & Dips") can't resist pulling an acronym out of the mists of time
Seriously, not that hard to say "Russia's Federal Security Service (aka FSB) wants..."
The 1980's called and said they wanted their Cold War propaganda back
Slashbloid, brought to you by FOX (Score:2)
Did you not notice that the "News for Nerds" slogan has been gone for a while?
Slashbloid's main purpose is to generate advert impressions now. It doesn't matter how cheap and wrong the summaries are. FOX News would be proud.
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We have to learn from China! (Score:2)
I mean, look at them! They have an economic growth in times of a recession, so their model of society has to be right.
Let's face it, folks. Communism was the right idea.
(may contain traces of nuts or sarcasm)
I agree... (Score:4, Funny)
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's own LiveJournal account, which he termed 'revolting and illegal.'
I agree. LiveJournal accounts can often be revolting and illegal.
The KGB no longer exists (Score:2)
Yeah, the FSB is the success to the KGB in the Russian Federation, but if you tell a Russian there's no difference between it and the Soviet Union, half of them will probably punch you in the face.
This kind of stuff just makes Slashdot read like an amateur blog that can't be trusted for news or fact checking.
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There is no KGB.
There is [wikipedia.org], actually, just not in Russia.
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KGB Wants Control of Email and VOIP
The FSB (really just a rebadged KGB) is worried about the abilities...
FSB Wants Control of Email and VOIP
The FSB (successor to the KGB) is worried about the abilities...
See what I did there? All of the facts, none of the bias!
Medvedev's part in the story (Score:3, Insightful)
Their increased interest in the tools may be related to a DDoS attack on Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's own LiveJournal account, which he termed 'revolting and illegal.'"
This is very much oversimplifying the part of Medvedev in this story (as well as the story in general).
This whole mess started when an FSB official (head of their department of information and telecommunication security), in the course of an official meeting, brought up GMail, Hotmail and Skype as an example of a "security problem" due to impossibility of wiretaps (as servers are outside the country, and HTTPS ensures secure connection to them from within), and suggested a ban (neither TFS nor TFA mention this!).
Shortly after, an official from president Medvedev's administration stated that the ban - and, more broadly, the whole idea that foreign-hosted services are a "security issue" - is a personal opinion of that particular FSB person, and does not represent the official position of that organization nor government as a whole.
Shortly after that, prime minister Putin's press secretary stated that this is incorrect, and the position is the official position of FSB, that it is well-argued and reasonable, and that Putin takes it with all due consideration.
So basically it's more of the same thing [nytimes.com] that we've seen before. Whether it's a genuine power struggle between president and prime minister (the elections are less than a year away), or whether they're playing out a scripted "good cop / bad cop" in preparation for the same, is yet to be seen.
Ssssstop it! (Score:1)
ALL of the west should be doing this (Score:2)
It is time for us to install this as well.
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Calling the FSB a rebadged KGB is a bit disingenuous, isn't it? I mean, one doesn't have to live in Russia to discern that these are two different organisations with different structures and, most importantly, goals.
Anything which reports to Vladimir Putin is still a Cagey Bee in my book.
Re:In soviet russia... (Score:4, Insightful)
As if you'd need "soviet" for that anymore. Face it, the Soviet Union protected our liberty. As long as they existed, the "western democracies" had to play nice to be seen as the good guy.