Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • June 29, 2023 3:39 AM

@ Bruce, ALL,

“It’s so easy to think that you won’t get caught.”

Fun fact, some “traitors” in the Five-Eyes, working secretly as spys for the KGB got away with it by the simple tactic of “not talking” and not engaging with investigators.

One such story that has appeared is about the Australian ASIO spy –now long dead apparently of old age– “Ian George Peacock”.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-19/russia-spy-mole-in-asio-sold-cold-war-intelligence-four-corners/102469652

The alleged evidence against him is at best circumstantial, for a couple of reasons,

Firstly he was according to Russian records originally unknown to them and very cautious in his behaviours so they had to run their own surveillance for quite some time to identify him.

Secondly he always either refused to talk or denied it to ASIO and other officers. On one occasion vigerously so, in that it’s said ASIO officers tried to bribe him with a briefcase full of cash in a public place and he made a very loud attention gravbing scene and threw the money up in the air…

https://kyleorton.substack.com/p/soviet-espionage-victory-australia-ian-peacock

The truth of the matter is that nearly all involved on both sides are now gone, and with them their secrets. The dead can not defend, confess, or be free of accusation, as Shakespear wryly noted,

“The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones”

The only reason we know of Ian George Peacock is that, infamy lives long after death, far more than reputation in life…

Clive Robinson • June 29, 2023 7:55 AM

@ Winter,

“The importance of “Don’t Talk to the police”[1] cannot be stressed enough.”

Or “anyone” for that matter… Including Information systems in general, not just faux assistants for which many appear to have “follies de amour” and treat them like “trusted servants”.

Back at the end of the last century in the UK atleast something like 80% of crimes that were solved was down to those involved “flapping their gums” in one way or another, usually for no reason other than to “big it up”.

Not long after that the Police found people communicating electronically were “biging it up” as well. The famous one was of a notorious car hijack/theft gang standing infront of the stolen vehicles or sitting in them driving…

You might remember “The Croyden Riots” in South East London back in August 2011 where madness prevailed for five nights. Around then there was the belief in certain lower echelon criminal circles that BlackBerry Phones were secure… Within hours it became clear in the MSM they were not,

‘https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/09/london-riots-blackberrys-police

The Met Police later providing evidence / information obtained from the network against suspects should have woken up people who were in less than lawfull activities…

Likewise it eventually became known that Skype had a “backdoor” added under it’s “Project Chess”, as the code was found, but by whom it was added is still unclear, but went in before MS took over Skype,

‘https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/technology/silicon-valley-and-spy-agency-bound-by-strengthening-web.html

So it begs the question why did those in those unlawful activity spheres buy into the likes of EncroChat founded some three years after the Ed Snowden revelations and gaining something like 60,000 users who were it appears from press reports mainly part of “Serious Organised Crime”.

I could go on and list many other things, but I guess what is now comming out over the Capitol events,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/10/25/fbi-given-power-to-unlock-capitol-riot-suspect-phone-with-his-fingerprint/

Show many people are “not learning”.
Even how some senior Political people who should have known better have found their alleged right to privacy from FBI was not what they thought,

‘https://theintercept.com/2021/02/22/capitol-riot-fbi-cellphone-records/

But seniors in Defence and Secret Service staff had their phones wiped,

‘https://www.businessinsider.com/january-6-text-messages-from-defense-department-army-officials-wiped-2022-8

‘https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/14/us-secret-service-agents-texts-erased-january-6

And people still wonder why I use the “One Time Pad”(OTP) as an example of the only usable realy “private” pencil and paper “hand cipher”. Which also has full deniability against second party betrayal. Oh and why I also talk about why you should only use them on glass and similar surfaces using soft led pencils.