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from the are-we-for-encryption-or-against? dept.
Two Republican members of Congress sent a formal letter Tuesday to the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of the Inspector General, expressing concern that "approximately a dozen career EPA officials" are using the encrypted messaging app Signal to covertly plan strategy and may be running afoul of the Freedom of Information Act.
The open source app has gained renewed interest in the wake of the election of President Donald Trump.
As Ars has reported previously, all Signal messages and voice calls are end-to-end encrypted using the Signal Protocol, which has since been adopted by WhatsApp and other companies. However, unlike other messaging apps, Signal's maker, Open Whisper Systems, makes a point of not keeping any data, encrypted or otherwise, about its users. (WhatsApp also does not retain chat history but allows for backups using third-party services, like iCloud, which allows for message history to be restored when users set up a new device. Signal does not allow messages to be stored with a third party.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @12:03AM
Disband the EPA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @12:15AM
Obvious rebuttal: disband the Trump administration!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @12:26AM
It's obviously Trump's fault that government employees now need to be transparent, I guess they didn't need to before.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Friday February 17 2017, @01:11AM
This has nothing do with transparency. Trump and his cronies have made it absolutely clear that the EPA has been an unacceptable burden on corporations, and therefore indirectly a terrible burden upon the poor workers. Usually the violins come out for the coal miners. If ONLY the poor coal billionaire could dump his waste wherever the fuck he feels like it, America would be great again the poor little coal miners would of course be treated better in accordance with the long standing tradition of coal barons treating coal miners with love, respect, and humanity.....
Then the EPA is really just a tool for China to implement their hoax of Global Warming/Climate Change/Fucking over America right? No genuine research, no legitimate stewardship of the environment, just un-American fucking with corporations profits. Why do we need them right?
So now we have no oversight whatsoever, and combined with the Army Corp of Engineers rolling over for Trump removing all public comment, we have no oversight and proper planning and approval for DAPL. The public got the big fuck you, and we were SUPPOSED to have 10 days left at least to provide PUBLIC comment. That's gone, and whatever we think doesn't matter. Trying to protest against that means, in at least the minds of Republican lawmakers, that we are terrorists. The new buzzword is economic terrorism which really translates into corporations whining that they can't strong arm the public into accepting their version of profits-make-right ideology. To resist against them, to protest against them, to provide any negative PR for them, is a very, very, very unfair attack against them! Sad.
THAT and all of the climate change data is under attack, websites are being CENSORED, and the EPA is being declawed for corporate executives that finally have the pay-to-play president they always wished for. Yeah, um, I can totally and completely understand why career EPA officials are speaking and organizing against the Trump administration using privacy tools.
It's civil war people. At least the beginnings of it, and Trump better fucking get used to the resistance. No matter how many times some fucking dipshit tries to remind us of how we lost, we're going to continue to resist and remind THEM, that they we are still here. Progressively more motivated, more pissed off, and becoming more active BEYOND the moderated and watched communications channels like Facebook and Twitter. The preferred methods of communication, at least for the NSA/FBI, are being eschewed for methods that actually deliver privacy.
Resist!
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @02:20AM
Nobody is denying global warming, but no one can be certain what to do about it.
Which is why the EPA works great as an industrial regulation lobbying group, combined with the "OMG CLIMATE CHANGE DENIER!11" hysteria and witch hunt against dissident scientists (some might say heretical), the whole deal turns really sour, environmentalism takes the back seat while corporate lawyers debate how to kill off competition as long as it appears "environmentally friendly" on the surface.
The "resistance" are a bunch of insane progress-at-all-cost idiots, idealists pretending to be revolutionaries, whose goal, whether they realize it or not, is to continue the previous status quo. I bet they'll be the first ones to cower on fear when they actually get the civil war they've been asking for.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @02:53AM
Nobody is denying global warming
Bullshit.
witch hunt against dissident scientists
Got any references for that?
I do remember a certain someone asking for the names of people at the DOE working on climate change or who associated with them, but that probably isn't the witch hunt you are talking about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @03:20AM
Progressives with guns are ready. Don't you worry about that. Nobody's is going to be cowering, I assure you.
Unless you're talking about Mein Fuhrer Trump.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @04:19AM
Pick one.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by butthurt on Friday February 17 2017, @05:49AM
Last but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles and shotguns. The only thing that I’ve ever said is that in areas where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it’s time for Negroes to defend themselves. Article number two of the constitutional amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle. This doesn’t mean you’re going to get a rifle and form battalions and go out looking for white folks, although you’d be within your rights—I mean, you’d be justified; but that would be illegal and we don’t do anything illegal. If the white man doesn’t want the black man buying rifles and shotguns, then let the government do its job. [...] If he’s not going to do his job in running the government and providing you and me with the protection that our taxes are supposed to be for, since he spends all those billions for his defense budget, he certainly can’t begrudge you and me spending $12 or $15 for a single-shot, or double-action. I hope you understand. Don’t go out shooting people, but any time—brothers and sisters, and especially the men in this audience; some of you wearing Congressional Medals of Honor, with shoulders this wide, chests this big, muscles that big—any time you and I sit around and read where they bomb a church and murder in cold blood, not some grownups, but four little girls while they were praying to the same God the white man taught them to pray to, and you and I see the government go down and can’t find who did it.
-- Malcolm X
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @09:53AM
Nice, a progressive getting redpilled into supporting 2nd Amendment rights, there's hope for you yet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @04:12AM
The fact that you haven't heard of it says much about its success, ignorance isn't confined to "the other party".
Here are some articles with names https://www.city-journal.org/html/real-war-science-14782.html [city-journal.org].
While Republicans and conservatives blatantly ignore inconvenient facts, the "liberals" suppress it instead, much more subtle.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @06:44AM
ignorance isn't confined to "the other party"
At least you have something correct.
As for your link, it's funny that the standards of a what constitutes a wich hunt seems to change:
When email records are demanded from climate researchers that have data supporting climate change, it's "we're just asking questions" or "we are ensuring scientific integrity".
When email records are demanded from an anti-climate change lobbiest organization suspected of illegal activity, it's an offensive act that is meant to intimidate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @07:50AM
Why the legal actions against think tanks at all? Did they go all out and dump crude oil into the sea to destroy the environment? It would be more convincing if they actually pointed out flaws in the data than using punitive legislative powers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @03:13PM
Why the legal actions
I don't know. You link to a biased source that only references the "victim's" perspective through a fluff piece put out by their PR department.
pointed out flaws in the data
What data? You claimed that there was a "witch hunt against dissident scientists" and your link does not support your claim. Which scientists are being hunted?
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Friday February 17 2017, @03:49PM
I've only seen that from kooks.
Denial that the observed warming is proven to be human caused? That's disputed.
Geological records show a series of temp swings from much cooler to warmer than present, without any possible human input. Environmental feedback loops have been found, but not completely understood. The mechanisms are only partly discovered and understood. Localized warming confounds temp records (cities are warmer). Those altered measurements are used anyway by attempting to derive a correction however those corrections are in dispute.
Knowing that, anyone who says the science is settled is flat wrong, probably dishonestly. Much has been learned, however the size of the task to fully understand isn't yet known. There are statistical models, but they have to be 'fit' to the data and haven't been shown to be predictive. The knowns are statistical probabilities teased from the noise. There is more than enough to show something is there to study - enough to begin speculation turning into preliminary conclusions that the proponents attempt to firm up and test. That's ongoing, and weakest in identifying causes and confounding factors. The situation became politicized, which is bad for scientific progress.
So, with incomplete data the question is what now? The resources available for pollution control are finite. Expense towards reducing carbon takes away from something else. What's the best use of that effort? If the alarmists are right, the problem is long term, what's the best 100 year goal?
Ex: Fusion power is much further away than advertised, if it pans out (40 years away... for 40 years... Hmmm). Develop fission power as an Apollo/Manhattan level project. Assume all the usual idiot and thieves will be involved once anything is deployed. Our current power plant tech was paid for by military spending. Power generating without military applications was not explored. A solid effort evaluating Thorium is warranted, for example. But that'd require political left/right cooperation when divisiveness is oh so profitable. (I'm looking for something as safe as a coal plant - whose emissions do cause early deaths)
witch hunt against dissident scientists
Got any references for that?
I do remember a certain someone asking for the names of people at the DOE working on climate change or who associated with them, but that probably isn't the witch hunt you are talking about.
Is the Google broken on your Internet? How sad.
It's easy to find evidence that the issue is politicized and being treated as a religious matter. 'The science is settled' is nice damning example. Search for 'Al Gore carbon profits' - 'Al Gore may be the first Carbon Billionaire' was a headline in the first page. But he's living in a house how big? Flying private jets? That's a man who wants to kill us all isn't it?
All of this BS is a obstacle to finding the truth, and a huge one to taking the most effective action. Esp. when the .01%ers can profit from the problem. (if you look at what's DONE, not said it's hard to tell the Left/Right .01% apart...)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @04:21PM
I've only seen that from kooks
20% of US adults polled say that there is "no evidence".
Google broken on your Internet
You've never heard of the burden of proof? How sad.
the issue is politicized
No shit, but what does Al Gore's house and jet have to do with the "witch hunt for dissident scientists"?
http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/public-views-on-climate-change-and-climate-scientists/ [pewinternet.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_burden_of_proof [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 17 2017, @06:58PM
Nobody is denying global warming
"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." - President Donald J Trump
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @06:54AM
It's civil war people. At least the beginnings of it, and Trump better fucking get used to the resistance.
Accusing the EPA officials of sedition, if not outright treason, just because they're using Signal to send their text messages is hardly called for. It's a perfectly sensible text messaging system that happens to encrypt informal text messaging by default. I'm thrilled to hear someone in government has an inkling of how to be security minded when using technology. We should be terminating the EPA, if only so we can perhaps hire these folks on to teach the rest of government a thing or two in some sort of cybersecurity role.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Friday February 17 2017, @08:45AM
"[Signal is] a perfectly sensible text messaging system that happens to encrypt informal text messaging by default."
Exactly. Not seeing the problem here.
"the EPA has previously examined employee use of text messages to conduct government business and found that only a minuscule fraction of those messages was retained under FOIA"
So, before this, they were probably sending normal, unencrypted text messages. The only difference is that Signal message cannot be intercepted.
Back in the dark ages I worked for the government. I used government equipment to communicate. I assumed that any archival requirements were handled at the infrastructure level - it certainly wasn't anything I spend even an instant thinking about. The government gives you a phone, you use it to send a text, archiving is not your problem.
The more important question may be: Why isn't Signal installed by default on all government-issued phones?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday February 17 2017, @06:48PM
There is a project, called Dishfire, which aims to collect and archive text messages; in 2011 it was collecting 194 million messages per day (if Edward Snowden is to be believed).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep [theguardian.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Friday February 17 2017, @10:12AM
Nonsense. Trump's policy and treatment of the EPA goes back to Obama's suppression of the findings on how the ground aquifers are being contaminated during fracking (toxic and flammable water) and his direct (and illegal) orders to the EPA to stop enforcing their own regulations.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Friday February 17 2017, @10:46AM
edIII, who counts himself a progressive, writes: "It's civil war people."
Be careful what you wish for; you might get it.
Progressives generally hate guns. The armed people on the side of the progressives are BLM mobs, and gangs like the ones that recently trashed the Berkeley campus. On the Trumpian side you have all hobbiest shooters and gun owners, as well as essentially the entire military and all of the vets. Probably most of the police forces as well.
You sure you want a civil war?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Spook brat on Friday February 17 2017, @03:54PM
On the Trumpian side you have all hobbiest shooters and gun owners, as well as essentially the entire military and all of the vets. Probably most of the police forces as well.
Don't be so quick to assume that those groups will be automatically and dogmatically aligned with the President. The Oathkeepers and 3%ers lean more Libertarian than strictly-speaking Republican. I'm pretty sure that both major parties in the US currently regard anyone who takes the "and domestic" part of their oath of office seriously as a potential traitor and not to be trusted.
Given that the Southern Poverty Law Center categorizes the Oathkeepers as an extremist group, [splcenter.org] and has the III%ers on their anti-government [splcenter.org] watch list, it's safe to say that few of those you listed will fall in with the Democrat party. Calls by the Oathkeepers' founder to have John McCain tried for treason aren't going to give them a good relationship with the Republican party, either. It's odd to think, but many Veterans are more likely to align with the Black Panthers than with either major party.
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday February 17 2017, @01:06AM
Disband the oversight committee(s). All they do is complain about transgressions and problems, if they weren't there all the complaining would stop.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @06:23AM
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/861/text [congress.gov]