Intelligence Officials Fear Snowden's 'Doomsday' Cache 381
Dega704 writes with news that Edward Snowden is believed to have a collection of highly sensitive classified documents that will be released in the event he is detained, hurt, or killed. According to Reuters, "The data is protected with sophisticated encryption, and multiple passwords are needed to open it, said two of the sources, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The passwords are in the possession of at least three different people and are valid for only a brief time window each day, they said. The identities of persons who might have the passwords are unknown." These details have caused several security experts to express skepticism, but multiple sources, including Glenn Greenwald, believe Snowden has not released all of the documents he appropriated. "U.S. officials and other sources said only a small proportion of the classified material Snowden downloaded during stints as a contract systems administrator for NSA has been made public. Some Obama Administration officials have said privately that Snowden downloaded enough material to fuel two more years of news stories." Whether or not it's true, U.S. and U.K. officials clearly believe it, which can only serve to protect Snowden.
valid for only a brief time window each day (Score:5, Interesting)
How would that even work? Is there a central server that keeps the data and decides what time it is? That sure sounds safe.
Brief time window? (Score:2, Interesting)
"The passwords ... are valid for only a brief time window each day, they said."
How does that work?
Re:Let's see (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, if the NSA knows how to cryptoanalyze AES or PGP, the methods used getting into the hands of criminals would be bad for everyone.
Unless someone within the NSA realized there was a billion dollar payday if he sold those methods to certain criminals or countries.
In which case the public isn't safe and doesn't know it.
That's even worse.
Some things should be secret from the public, nuclear launch codes, names of spies, etc... but interent security affects all of us, and its not making anybody safer to try and hide a vulnerability there.
The NSA isn't magic. If the NSA can break AES, then anyone else might figure it out too.
Re:Brief time window? (Score:5, Interesting)
"The passwords ... are valid for only a brief time window each day, they said."
How does that work?
There's no literal way for that to work, but there are ways to protect sensitive data in a way that could be described in that way.
One way I can think of is to get someone I know to buy something like an Amazon instance in a way that isn't traceable to me. Then I upload my data in an encrypted fashion into the instance. Then I give a set of people different passwords to log into the virtual machine running in that instance. Then I set the instance to power on in a scheduled manner so that the instance is only accessible at certain moments in time known to the people I give the passwords to. At all other times the instance is powered off and the people with the passwords to it do not have any knowledge of how to manage the instance itself directly. Thus, the people I designate as trustees for the data only have access at certain times. On top of that, they could have different segments of a key-split so that to actually access the data requires at least two different people logging into the instance and providing their keys, or alternatively one person logging in and providing two different key segments.
Why you might do something like this is to try to minimize the availability of the data from being discovered or cracked. Most of the time, the data isn't on a system that is in any real way accessible from the internet. Furthermore, it also makes it less expensive to create multiple data caches in the cloud because the cost of running the systems would be very low, since they would not be running most of the time.
That room on the 6th floor of the Book Depository (Score:3, Interesting)
Regarding the Kennedy, has anyone been into to that particular room on the sixth floor of the Book Depository in Dallas, Tx, USA, where they said Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK ?
I have.
In normal time they blocked that room up with plexiglass barrier. Visitors could only see that room from the corridor outside.
But I went inside.
I went there during the time Oliver Stone was filming the movie "JFK". They removed the plexiglass barrier.
I was able to stand in THAT VERY WINDOW, looked out of the window and surveyed the scene below, and I tried to assume the position of having carrying a rifle, and tried to aim that "virtual rifle" at the point at Dealey Plaza where JFK was shot.
I couldn't.
You see, if I were Lee Harvey Oswald, and I was doing the shooting BY MYSELF I have to know WHEN the motorcade which JFK was riding arrive.
I have to have the chance to judge the timing so that I can aim my weapon at JFK's head.
The JFK motorcade came, as I was standing on the 6th floor window, from my LEFT SIDE, and proceeded to the RIGHT SIDE.
If I were the shooter, I need to stand UP and look at the left side, waiting for the motorcade to arrive, and then aim my rifle at the right side as the motorcade goes towards the Dealey Plaza.
I couldn't do it ALONE.
In order to hit JFK's head when the motorcade is at Dealey Plaza ---- which is at the EXTREME RIGHT HAND SIDE from the view from the 6th floor window, I need to extend at least 60% of my torso OUT OF THE WINDOW in order to get my shot.
I do not know how long Lee Harvey Oswald torso happened to be, my own torso is about the average size human grown man's torso.
If I were to shoot JFK ALONE in that 6th floor windows, I couldn't.
I watched the documentaries where they had expert shooters trying out shooting at the motorcade below from the same window, and the shooters' in the documentaries were adopting the "half crouch" position, aiming their rifles at the exact point where JFK was killed.
But if I *WERE THE LONE KILLER IN THAT ROOM* and if I *WERE DOING THAT*, I would not be able to know WHEN JFK's MOTORCADE WOULD ARRIVE, as there is no way I could see the LEFT HAND SIDE of the windows when I crouched and lean against the left side of the window holding my weapon aiming towards Dealey Plaza at my extreme right side.
So all of these essentially boils down to my own conclusion that
1. Lee Harvey Oswald, if he was the killer of JFK, was NOT acting alone. He MUST HAVE an accomplice in that same room, to act as a "watcher" for him and to inform him when JFK's motorcade was to arrive.
2. If Lee Harvey Oswald was NOT half crouching on the left side of the windows when he shot JFK from the 6th floor of the Book Depository building, he must have EXTENDED at least 60% of his body OUT of that windows.
And in order to NOT FALL DOWN, he must have SOMEONE ELSE inside that same room to GRAB HIS LEGS as an anchor.
Conclusion from #1 and #2 is that, if Lee Harvey Oswald was really the killer of JFK and he did made those 3 shots from the 6th floor window, he was NOT acting alone.
Re:Lovely (Score:2, Interesting)
Make them squirm.
Does a possible BS or shear stupidity problem exists? The NSA has a dilemma: It doesn't want the important information known, but killing him activates this knowledge. However, now people against the NSA have an incentive to kill him, to find out what is so important. So, is the NSA's job now to stop these people to keep him alive?
Re:Brief time window? (Score:4, Interesting)
From an attacker's point of view. Suppose you now slice the time of day up into a short list of fragments you can hash. Now you have a list of hash(hash(truncated_time)) and potentially hash(hash(truncated_time)) XOR hash(hash(given_password)). You XOR each of your truncated time constructions to yield a list of hash(hash(given_password)), and you're back at the original clueless agent problem.
Sophisticated encryption? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why?
The NSA already knows what is in these documents. The documents are theirs. Who would Snowden be hiding them from and why the sophistication?
Hide them just out of plain sight, so to speak. And when some accident should befall Snowden, the cron job times out and an e-mail with location and simple decryption instructions goes out to the world. Or the simple key is split between a large group of people in such a way that a small subset of them is all that's needed to open the vault, so to speak.
Snowden isn't hiding anything from the NSA that they don't already know. All he needs to do is to keep one of his aids from 'turning the nuclear key' on his own.
Sure (Score:5, Interesting)
That is why I've said from the beginning that, if only for PR purposes, the US is most likely working the hardest to KEEP HIM ALIVE.
Because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad HIMSELF could walk up and knife Snowden, and it would be blamed entirely on the US.
Re:That room on the 6th floor of the Book Deposito (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't the trees block a lot more of the road than they did then?
Sorry, I didn't know anything about the trees back then.
See, I am not a born American. I am a naturalized American and I did not arrived at America until the early 1970's.
Furthermore, I spent most of my stay in America in the Boston area (and later in the Silicon Valley). I only go to Dallas occasionally on business trips.
Back when Oliver Stone was shooting his JFK movie (no pun intended) in Dallas I happened to be there for a conference, and both the Dallas local newspapers (Dallas Morning News as well as Dallas Times Herald) were having a field day on Oliver Stone's project (they were looking for old cars and things like that) and I thought to myself, since I was in Dallas, I might as well check out the scene at Dealey Plaza.
I was very lucky indeed.
When I went up the 6th floor, nobody was there, and seeing that the plexiglass barrier was removed I simply walked into that room (they had some empty boxes there as props) and started to check out that window that were shown so many times on tee vee.
And when I said I had to extend at least 60% of my torso OUTSIDE THE WINDOW in order to aim my "virtual rifle" towards that spot where JFK was shot, I wasn't kidding.
That angle of line the bullets travelled towards that exact spot where JFK was killed (if the killer actually fired from the 6th floor) would only allow a very slim degree of freedom.
If you guys would to check the book depository building, you would know that the very windows Lee Harvey Oswald was said to have used was at the LEFT SIDE of the building (looking from inside the building).
With Dealey Plaza at the RIGHT SIDE of the building, viewing from that 6th floor window, the book depository building itself has blocked much of view.
Someone commented alluding skeet shooting and clay pigeon ... well ... anyone who have tried skeet shooting would know that in order to successfully shoot at the flying clay pigeon there should not be ANY ANGLE RESTRICTION.
Unfortunately, the angle of restriction is massive, if you were to shoot from that 6th floor window.
In fact, that very day I almost fell out of that fucking windows because I was trying so hard to "get my shot".
Someone replied that it's not hard to aim at JFK since it's a motorcade and they're not travelling fast ... well ... let me ask you:
It's a motorcade, which means, it's a convoy of cars.
WITHOUT KNOWING WHICH CAR JFK was travelling, how would I, the shooter, know which head to position my scope's crosshair at ?
You guys need to understand that there were no iPAD or any smartphone back in 1963, as there were also NO INSTANTANEOUS LIVE CAM COVERAGE online.
If you were Lee Harvey Oswald, and you have left your house pretty early in the day, you would have NO IDEA which car JFK was travelling on, or how many cars are there in the motorcade, in the first place.
Which means, you NEED SOMEONE TO TELL YOU, or you NEED TO SEE IT FOR YOURSELF, before you train your scope at your target's head.
I am no expert on JFK's assassination. I was not inside the United States of America when that happened.
I was merely curious.
My conclusion COULD BE WRONG, and I welcome anyone to proof me wrong.