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from the nothing-to-hide-vs-none-of-your-business dept.
The New York Times published an interesting story about the fears of the current FBI director:
The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, said Thursday that federal laws should be changed to require telecommunications companies to give law enforcement agencies access to the encrypted communications of individuals suspected of crimes.
... Mr. Comey warned that crimes could go unsolved if law enforcement officers cannot gain access to information that technology companies like Apple and Google are protecting using increasingly sophisticated encryption technology.
“Unfortunately, the law hasn’t kept pace with technology, and this disconnect has created a significant public safety problem,” he said.
Mr. Comey said that he was hoping to spur Congress to update the 20-year-old Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which does not require companies to give law enforcement direct access to individuals’ communications.
The F.B.I. has long had concerns about devices “going dark” — when technology becomes so sophisticated that the authorities cannot gain access to them. But now, Mr. Comey is warning that the new encryption technology has evolved to the point that it could adversely affect crime solving.
The kicker is this line:
“Those charged with protecting our people aren’t always able to access the evidence we need to prosecute crime and prevent terrorism, even with lawful authority."
Of course, it should be no surprise to the FBI why so many people are going "dark" and using things like Tails. For decades, the government has proven time and again that it can't be trusted to act lawfully and constitutionally. The FBI is responsible for more than its share of that. So naturally those who can are going to take steps to protect their privacy and Apple and Google, among others, are simply responding to that demand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 17 2014, @03:43PM
VT/VPro includes a vnc server that sends off whatever's on the gfx card frame buffer.
i3 i5 and i7 chips all include VT/VPro.
It can be remotely re-enabled if disabled.
Law enforcement enforces their belief system upon the men of the country. Basically a religion.
Men have no control over the laws by democratic means, that was taken away in 1920.
The only possible control is revolution and slaughter.
(Score: 1) by GWRedDragon on Friday October 17 2014, @05:00PM
vPro is not on every i7 (for instance, the 4770k lacks it).
According to Intel, it only works with integrated graphics. Which makes sense, given that having it work with different graphics cards would require a driver system.
Could it be backdoored? Sure, but that's not immediately discernible from the public spec. Even then the real security issue lies in the network card, not the cpu. You need to be able to trust your network card not to bypass OS protection of incoming data. Without the cooperation of the network chipset, cpu level backdoors would be much more difficult and much easier to detect.
Maybe it's just time for an open source network card.
[Insert witty message here]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 17 2014, @05:21PM
All laptops have integrated graphics.
It IS backdoored.
Read the specs. It can always be reenabled remotely.
Stop pooh-poohing concerns.
Fucking shill.
The intel chiefs should be killed for this. They work against us to try to put us in prison.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Friday October 17 2014, @05:59PM
If you are running Windoze, sure, I believe it. But if you are running a free OS connected to the network via an open chipset, then how? Please elaborate.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Friday October 17 2014, @06:05PM
(Score: 1) by GWRedDragon on Friday October 17 2014, @06:08PM
Backdoored hardware is certainly a concern, I doubt any of us disagree. However, there are legitimate concerns and there is trolling. Two different things.
[Insert witty message here]
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Friday October 17 2014, @06:33PM
(Score: 1) by GWRedDragon on Friday October 17 2014, @06:06PM
>> Fucking shill.
Says the AC. Go back to trolling some other site please.
[Insert witty message here]
(Score: 1) by unauthorized on Friday October 17 2014, @06:06PM
[citation needed]
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Without any proof, Intel's statements are far more credible than some random troll on the Internet.