Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • November 22, 2021 10:24 AM

@ Bruce, All,

I have long been annoyed that the word “crypto” has been co-opted …

You may renember years ago I had the same feeling about “hacker”.

I have for most of my life been under the original meaning a “hacker”.

I have however never been a “cracker” which is what first journalists and later prosecuters turned “hacker” into meaning in the public eye.

As has been noted by wordsmiths in the past the English language does not have two words that have the exact same meaning, it does however have words that have multiple meanings such as “minute”. Some have apparently compleatly unrelated meanings.

Take “filibuster” we assume these days it is what legislators do to “talk out” legislation they do not like.

However it originally (prior 1860’s) ment “Pirate”.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/Filibuster

Interestingly in some older printed dictionaries “Procrastination” also had a Piratanical meaning, though I can not find an online refrence to it.

My fathers “half Morocan bound”[1] dictionary from the 1930’s has it in. But it also has “laser” in it which it indicats as being a small Indian bush.

[1] Hence the joke in a song, that has the lyric,

“Like Websters Dictionary I’m Moroccan bound”.

From the film “Road to Morocco” it is a song composed in 1942 by Jimmy Van Heusen, with lyrics by Johnny Burke, which was performed by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.

Clive Robinson • November 22, 2021 1:23 PM

@ tfb,

Once ‘flux’ meant something that you died from if you were unlucky: now it does not mean that: it means, in physics the flow of some quantity across some area, or a state of change. Somewhere someone is cross about that change.

This might amuse…

The “bloody flux” or “middle pasage flux” happened on slave ships made mainly of oak. Once on board it would make it’s way through slaves and crew alike. It was a form of bacterial dysentery. However anorher member of the same bacteria family also attacked the blood vessels in organs. So even if you survived the first the chances were you would be permanently dibilitated by the second.

Ironically perhaps there is a disease still called flux. However not in humans, “slimy flux” kills oak trees…

Clive Robinson • November 22, 2021 1:44 PM

@ , ALL,

… and was horrified to discover that Web3 is meant to be based on Cryptocurrency.

What was Web2 based on?

In fact what was Web2? other than overloaded protocols giving ever greater insecurity and near total loss of Privacy.

Based on the theory of “history predicts the future” Web3 should be an unmitigated disaster that colapses in on it’s self in very short order…

I’m just waiting for people to wake up and realise that “blockchain” is in reality fast becoming the new “Global Warming” driver taking over from coal and oil, call it GW2 or “Hot air 2”.

I must admit “Hot Air 2” does sound better than crypto-coin, and technically it’s more accurate to…

Clive Robinson • November 22, 2021 6:44 PM

@ SpaceLifeForm,

Remember What the Dormouse Said[1]

Aggh the record that the BBC used as an excuse to sack a very popular DJ and comedian (Kenny Everett) back oh when Maggie Thatcher was PM.

He played “White Rabbit” just before the news and joked about Jefferson Airplane, in a fairly innocent leg pulling way as the newsreader was Peter Jefferson[2]. Unfortunately unknown to Kenny the first news item was breaking news about an airliner crashing with nearly 400 people on board…

However a story leaked that the real reason he was sacked was because he made a couple of jokes about the Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher and she ordered the boot to be put in.

Knowing now what she tried to have done to me, I’m inclined to believe it was Mad Maggie putting the boot in.

She went kind of doo-lally with all sorts of Official Secrets Acts trials and similar many of which blew up on her and brought a load of bad press her way. Eventually after a couple of resignations of Ministers her party conspired behind her back and sacked her.

[1] If you’ve watched Matt Groening’s “Futurama” –way better than the Simpsons– about a decade back, you will know they “take the micky” out of ex US President Nixon… They first portray him as a “head in a jar” in the “head museum” and later in another eppisode titled “A head in the polls” on the body of “Bender the robot” in one scene they have him with a guitar badly struming and singing this line before calling on the hippies to meet him half way,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-P7peu7Wy7w

Oh and they get him singing ABBA’s Dancing Queen whilst line dancing…

[2] Back then the way the BBC had set the studios up the DJ and the News reader were in seperate rooms and could not talk to each other on an EOW or similar just via live to air which was under the control of the studio engineer.

Clive Robinson • November 24, 2021 2:30 AM

@ ,

Long long before hack/hacking became associated with technology, it was associated with two things,

1, Coughing.
2, Horse Riding

So “hacking cough” is one that is usually caused by a throat infection and is often both wet and productive in that various forms of muck are brought up. In some cases it may need physiotherapy to loosen muck so it can be brought up. It’s considered one of the more worrying coughs.

Then “within the equestrian activity” of horse riding “hack/hacking” is commonly used to describe either,

1, A light excercise ride frequently taken for enjoyment.

Or less commonly,

3, Hackney/hack is a breed of horse that typically was used back in the early to late 1800’s for pulling pasanger carriages hence Hackney Cab”.

Obviously of the two the first makes,

“I’ve breen for a good hack in the woods”

Sound oh so less sinister (left field joke).

Speaking of “scary” I have a story about my “whole body coughs” one of which broke a Doctors chair, scared a medical student white, and got me rushed to hospital where they wound my chest up so tightly, I could have entered the “Miss Mummy Contest” but that’s how they treat three broken ribs…

Clive Robinson • November 24, 2021 3:10 AM

@ Apu, ALL,

we are old and the language goes on — which doesn’t mean it shouldn’t annoy us 😉

On the contrary it should realy realy annoy us, it’s healthy.

Yes many of us fall in the “we are old” catagory, and we don’t get out as much as we used to because lifes little pleasures enjoyed by the young wane over the years and few things bring us the joy they once did…

But “getting a cob on” and being a “Grumpy Grandpa” gives us not just endless joy, it is almost the same as excercise it certainly has cardiovascular benifits…

Not only that, society accepts “Grumpy Grabpa’s” with a roll of the eyes and knowing looks, sometimes a shake of the head, or even a smirk. Not a hail of bullets that some dish out to the young for way lesser behaviours…

Clive Robinson • November 25, 2021 5:06 PM

@ MarkH, ALL,

From the new South Park special…

Just how long has South Park been going or should I ask how many times “They’ve killed Kenny”…

Southpark used to have cult status with the youngish 20 somethings IT croud at the end of last century.

I’m assuming if it’s still going it still has some “street cred” in the ICT sector.

If so them saying of crypto-coin,

“… so we trust more fly-by-night Ponzi schemes.”

May be the best “Public Service Message” on the subject to date.

I had a bad cringe moment a few weeks back I’ve changed my Doctor (called a “General Practitioner” or “GP” in the UK). One reason I changed them was that they anounced their private patients could pay in BitCoin…

I mentioned this was one of the reasons I had seen it as wise to move from my old GP to the new Doctor who looked puzzled. Then the Doctors 20something receptionist said she had bought some BitCoin through an agency…

What do you say at that point?

I just cringed and gave her my best sickly smile…

Clive Robinson • November 26, 2021 3:07 AM

@ Ted,

Sometimes the route to understnding is a room with walls full of white boards.

You simply break things down into managable chunks on individual boards with the highest levrls to the left and lowest to the right. The back wall is for stuff you get random thoughts about.

You just sit or stand in the middle and keep looking around from left to right trying to pull stuff from right to left and when you’ve got a part nailed write it down on a piece of paper and remove it from all but the leftmost boards (kind of like a solo card game called “Madmans patience”).

It’s a method I use for unknown projects. Both for the project managment and the design. And if you use different coloured pens for Project managment (red) Hardware development (brown), software development (blue) etc you would be surprised at just how complex a project you can run this way.

It is by the way that Richard Branson used to do the project planning etc for the “fun stuff” for world firsts he used to be famous for.

Clive Robinson • November 26, 2021 4:29 AM

@ Ted,

Like these?

No that is not a “Murder board” that’s a mess…

Have a look at the “Castle” murder boards,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8JJZuOiErL0

And the “FBI War Room” one (at 1:50 in) now that looks more like fun 😉

Clive Robinson • November 26, 2021 6:45 AM

@ Ted,

“The role of cryptology in the Falkland War.” Did you already know about this?

I was aware at the time of part of the “intelligence war” that went on, as were many others. Apparently it was “an open secret” in London amongst journalists amoungst others.

But the author of that article you point to does not mention one of the most important things which was then –and still is– known and in the public domain,

There were no easy satellite or other high bandwidth communications links from the UK down to that part of the world. Just as there were no current maps[1]…

So information from the various types of intelligence put together in the UK or else where would often have been to late to be of any real use for anything on the islands.

But the UK has a reputation of keeping “crypto knowledge” not just “close to the vest” but tucked away inside untill death do it part.

That is even though it will be Fourty year next month that things started being known via intelligence we will not find out anything officially for another sixty years, and even then it will be “sanitized” in various ways.

Anyone involved with intelligence back then will have signed the same piece of paper I did, so in theory will take things to their grave and beyond[2], only… I suspect 2032 will see a lot of 50th aniversary books in which a lot will come out because the authors will be to old to fear the teeth of the Official Secrets Act, and setting the truth and their place in it properly in history will be more important to them (much to the anoyance of some North American entities).

Oddly perhaps we saw exactly that in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. To many they were a funny time with regards “secrecy” the US was starting to open up their WWII records which caused some issues under the BRUSA rules. Then those who had taken part in Ultra, Bletchley and quite a bit more, saw that the true history of what went on would be covered up and buried not to be known and others would grab credit (as with the oragin of electronic computers).

So autobiographical books came out, of note was Prof R.V.Jones “Most Secret War” and F.W. Winterbotham’s “The Ultra Secret” which were not attacked by the establishment so many others put pen to paper.

Unfortunately Maggie Thatcher became PM and she had some strange views and behaviour[3] with regards this which eventually gave rise to her being called “Mad Maggie” and her own party doing the night of the long knives / Et tu Brute on her. But that did not stop either Gordon Welchman or Peter Wright getting hounded and dragged through events where she tried to have them ruined.

The current UK encumbrants make “Mad Bad Maggie” look like a heavenly herald in comparison. So many can see toys being not just “thrown out of the pram” but viciously with significant intent to commit injury, harm and even death[4]. So don’t expect any significant revelations on the 40th aniversary next year.

[1] The story behind how the maps that were used came to be would all by it’s self make a fascinating book. Especially the work carried out in a supposadly “oh so secret” compound you could look down on from the north platform of Tolworth Railway Station.

[2] It gives rise to the ludicrous… For instance I know a number less than 100 that is as far as I am aware still to this day “secret” in the UK and it’s dependancies. Even though it has been published by various people and is in publically available maths text books, engineering textbooks and equipment manuals… That were never clasified in the first case for the text books abd the latter manuals are no longer secret in the North Americas and can be found on the internet.

[3] I have always had fairly strong oppinions about Maggie Thatcher and dislike is perhaps a too mild way to describe them. They have not improved with time, for instance I had confirmed not so long ago that she actually gave orders that I was to be persued and prosecuted over something back before the BT sell off. But it was my own “sixth sense” / “hinky fealings” from an inept approach by her minions that stopped it happening as I did not walk into what I now know was a trap, but strongly suspected at the time. Instead a little while later despite my warnings Robert Schifreen and Steve Gold got entrapped in her mad schemes by David Babski, for doing what we would now call “responsible disclosure” of BT’s distinct ineptness with regards computer security on their then prestigious Prestel service.

[4] Remember it’s not that long ago that Tony Blair PM and Co ended up in trouble over the claims of Iraq WMD that gave rise to the Bush War on Iraq so that the oil could be captured. Well one of the people who caused Tony Blair ended up dead in vary misterious circumstances. At the very least Tony Blair had him hounded to his death, many believe it was probably way worse. The current incumbents are upto their eye brows if not beyond in the persecution of what are journalists by any reasonable definition. Look up Craig Murray and Julian Assange if you want to see what is going on.

Clive Robinson • November 27, 2021 10:36 AM

@ SpaceLifeForm, Ted,

Note that the list of the 9 crimes all exist in their own place without any crypto currency required.

Or when you think about it fiat-money either.

Worse some are still considered acceptable ways to trade…

Take,

4, Exit Scams

Microsoft once went to court to claim that in effect there were no “second hand rights” on their software…

Similar is occuring in the loss of “right to repair” oh and don’t forget those enforved “walled gardens” beloved by Alphabet-Google, Amazon, Apple and a few others…

But consider,

3, Investment Fraud@Exchanges

The use of “Investment” in the title implies “finance” of some kind in most peoples head especially when associated with the word “fraud”.

But think more about what “Exchanges” realy means it covers any “trade” so any of the very many “closed markets” where producers are forced to use an agent or intermediary who thus has a monopoly.

Then look at why some Banks with very bad reputations from the Financial Crises are buying up parts of the supply chain… For instance in the likes of Aluninium supply, then creating artificial shortages that appear to favour others “futures trades”…

It’s nothing new in fact there is a delightfully readable book “The Silver Bears” that was also made into an equally as fun movie. Whilst it was –I assume– fiction back when it was written in the early 1970’s by Paul Erdman, it accurately describes Swiss Banking and what some were getting upto. I’ve been told it may have a significant biographical element as it was “loosely based on the authors own banking career and long imprisonment without charge in Switzerland”… He also wrote another book “Billion Dollar Sure Thing” which I’ve not read so can not comment on that won several awards.

Two decades later he wrote “The Swiss Account” which provided such accurate information it is credited with providing a significant guide to helping track down the assets of many Jewish victims of the Holocaust (much to the anoyance not just of the “Gnomes” but quite a chunk of the corrupt Swiss Government).