Thailand intercepting emails

[AyG]

It appears that the authorities here are deliberately preventing encryption of email sent via Google and Yahoo (and probably others) by using fake servers to intercept access. This means they can grab your email address and password as well as read all your messages.

“Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed - no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull.”

http://www.telecomasia.net/content/google-yahoo-smtp-email-severs-hit-thailand

[ukrules]

This will be the NSA doing what they do. They are known to have a presence in Thailand.

[joncl]

so if you have nothing to hide no problem ..

[Pomthai]

It's not about having anything to hide, it's about things not being anyone else's business.

[AyG]

so if you have nothing to hide no problem ..

That's an extremely narrow (and specious) argument.

What about a right to privacy? I wouldn't want the government installing spy cameras in my bedroom, though nothing I do there is illegal. Similarly I don't want the government spying upon my private conversations.

What about the chance of error? The government might accidentally leak the email addresses and passwords of hundreds of thousands of individuals.

What about the possibility of blackmail? For example, it's not illegal (AFAIK) in Thailand to have a mistress. However, that might be revealed by examining email leaving the adulterer open to blackmail.

And as Cardinal Richlieu wrote "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged".

[Langsuan Man]

Where in the cited article does it say or even imply that it is the government that is responsible for this ?

Could just as easily be "hackers" fishing for private information

[ukrules]

Where in the cited article does it say or even imply that it is the government that is responsible for this ?

Could just as easily be "hackers" fishing for private information

Hackers who have access to multiple ISP's infrastructure. There's a word for that : NSA.

[Chicog]

"Setting the email client to explicitly use TLS connecting on ports 465 or 587 is still safe and communication remains encrypted. Only clients that are set to use encryption if available connecting on the default SMTP port would fall foul of the attack."

Move along now, nothing to see here.

[Langsuan Man]

Where in the cited article does it say or even imply that it is the government that is responsible for this ?

Could just as easily be "hackers" fishing for private information

Hackers who have access to multiple ISP's infrastructure. There's a word for that : NSA.

Then why is it only True Internet and TOT ADSL , not all ISPs. Seems to me if it were the government of Thailand or NSA, they would be doing it to all networks, not just a few

Sorry, but this whole story stinks of misinformation

[KhunBENQ]

Thats interesting.

Since quite a while I do a regular check of my internet (ToT ADSL, later ToT fibre) with "The ICSI Netalyzr" from Berkeley University.

http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/index.html

(Java basedm runs a couple of minutes, some results hard to understand for non geeks)

Checking through protocols from 2013 and 2014 and I always see this warning:

Erkennung unsichtbarer Proxies (?): Warnung –

Wir haben die folgenden Proxies entdeckt:

• Port: 25 , Response Time: 35 ms

(For me) its in German and it means:

Detection of invisible proxies: Warning

We have detected the following proxies:

Port 25, Response Time 35 ms

35 ms that is in Thailand for sure.

Also since a short while it says that "my" IP is listed in Spamhaus blocking lists XBL PBL

??

Should I mention that I don't send/receive mail locally, but only use webmail?

Edited November 13, 2014 by KhunBENQ

[razer]

so if you have nothing to hide no problem ..

Yep. That's true. That's what the KGB and GRU said. Also what the Stasi and the Gestapo said. In fact, a hell of a lot of governments think like this.

[sgtsabai]

The traitorous NSA, FBI and other initials, both known and unknown have been crying to the public and to Congress they "need" more surveillance powers to spy on the lives of everyone. Personally, I doubt the Thai government has the expertise to do this, others, including the Brits do, have and will. As for the ignorant "if you don't do anything wrong, you don't have anything to fear" group, get an education and quit watch faux (not the) news. Who decides what is right and wrong? I don't care one way or the other, I don't want the government, private entities or anybody else knowing anything about what I do, don't do, believe, don't believe vote, anything, nothing, nada, zip unless I want them to. They may have the power, they don't have the right. The sheeple today are like lemmings, going to their certain death with a smile on their faces.

[MobileContent]

Thailand is using FinSpy and so does Malaysia and Singapore.

FinSpy also works with major anti virus programs and also attacks Android and iPhone devices.

[kennypowers]

This has been going on for a while, and the absolute reason you must use a VPN.

I quote:

"The US National Security Agency uses computer servers in Thailand to help run a massive collection of information about internet users, and to store and analyse the data”.

Taken from this article on the new internet security/privacy laws in Thailand: http://www.thethailandlife.com/vpn-thailand-law-risk-solution

[MobileContent]

Thats interesting.

Since quite a while I do a regular check of my internet (ToT ADSL, later ToT fibre) with "The ICSI Netalyzr" from Berkeley University.

http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/index.html

(Java basedm runs a couple of minutes, some results hard to understand for non geeks)

Checking through protocols from 2013 and 2014 and I always see this warning:

Erkennung unsichtbarer Proxies (?): Warnung –

Wir haben die folgenden Proxies entdeckt:

• Port: 25 , Response Time: 35 ms

(For me) its in German and it means:

Detection of invisible proxies: Warning

We have detected the following proxies:

Port 25, Response Time 35 ms

35 ms that is in Thailand for sure.

Also since a short while it says that "my" IP is listed in Spamhaus blocking lists XBL PBL

??

Should I mention that I don't send/receive mail locally, but only use webmail?

It's Finspy, a German company based in Munich but with a lot of business in Pullach, Germany. They produce spy software for law enforcement and security agencies throughout the world.

[MobileContent]

Where in the cited article does it say or even imply that it is the government that is responsible for this ?

Could just as easily be "hackers" fishing for private information

Hackers who have access to multiple ISP's infrastructure. There's a word for that : NSA.

Then why is it only True Internet and TOT ADSL , not all ISPs. Seems to me if it were the government of Thailand or NSA, they would be doing it to all networks, not just a few

Sorry, but this whole story stinks of misinformation

They are going for the Red shirts. AIS, Loxinfo and DTAC stay out of this games so I would say CAT, TOT and True are all some how linked to the current JUNTA. It's not the NSA.

[attrayant]

FinSpy useless against iPhone

FinSpy has the capabilities to infiltrate Android, Blackberry, and older Microsoft handsets, iPhones are out of reach unless the device's core security protocols have changed through jailbreaking.

[MobileContent]

FinSpy useless against iPhone

FinSpy has the capabilities to infiltrate Android, Blackberry, and older Microsoft handsets, iPhones are out of reach unless the device's core security protocols have changed through jailbreaking.

It works on Jailbreak devices and their are plenty in the market with a large number of devices in Thailand.If you don't jailbreak it you are connected to NSA.

Edited November 13, 2014 by MobileContent

[Robert24]

nothing new really. Any emails, chats and whatever you post on the internet can be intercepted and read by many institutions...what's the point?

do you want to get upset about it or just move on and adjust your behaviour accordingly? Don't use the internet, email,chat for sensitive and confidential communication.

[sgtsabai]

Unaware Thailand had Finspy. Then again, should not be surprised. Is that the one the EU just put a form of sanction on? Ahem, "law enforcement and security agencies"? How about repressive regimes that spy on their citizens because to them it is the citizen that is the enemy. Even Tor has been hacked by NSA now. Look for a fix in a couple of weeks. Google and Yahoo do use a bit of encryption, bet on the "initials" already having the backdoor to that as they do Skype etc. Only VPN, Tor using "bridges" and end to end encryption is relatively safe from the 5 spying eyes. And that will guarantee you that you have just gone on the list, and it isn't the one Santa is keeping. Yea, I'm paranoid, people used to tell me that, then tricky dick nixon came for me for real. Ah, for the "if you don't do anything wrong" I broke no laws, just spoke truth to the power. A jury and US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said so. It is even worse now than then.

[SOTIRIOS]

...and nobody to oversee what they do once in there.....

...I have been told some real horror stories...violations....emails being sent from peoples' email addresses.....

...and screwing people up in every which way...

Edited November 13, 2014 by SOTIRIOS

[kaydee412]

This isn't unique to Thailand -- Comcast in the US has been reported to do the same in the fight against spam. (A crap excuse in my opinion -- there are better ways that don't compromise privacy and security.) The monitoring is possible because the initial negotiation between the client and server is unencrypted and can therefore be intercepted and manipulated. Is there a way to avoid it? Yes, by not using STARTTLS and using SSL/TLS instead (e.g. in Thunderbird go to Tools > Account settings > Account name > Server settings and make sure it's SSL/TLS).

Whoever immediately brings up the NSA and the US in this scenario: please keep in mind that the Thai authorities have a number of reasons on their own for doing this. I'm sure you can think of more than a few if you try.

Edited November 13, 2014 by kaydee412

[wwest5829]

so if you have nothing to hide no problem ..

How about if I do nothing wrong, no one has a right to spy on me?!

[Tywais]

Also since a short while it says that "my" IP is listed in Spamhaus blocking lists XBL PBL

??

Unless you have a static IP the public IP seen will be shared by many so anyone of the users could trigger Spamhaus.

[Smurkster]

This will be the NSA doing what they do. They are known to have a presence in Thailand.

I could be totally off the mark with this one but: I would think if you were an American and a person of "interest" or were just down right wanted, Thailand would NOT be the place to be sending out emails and or trying to preserve you clandestine identity. I can't think of another country in the region that the US is closer to than Thailand. I'm always learning new things that make me (half jokingly refer to Thailand as the 51st state, usually I reserve that title for Israel)

[catweazle]

Anyone who believes that you could do anything online and remain incognito is a pityful dreamer.

The internet was initially created by people for people, then was hijacked and turned into a giant funnel, where sinister forces collect data about anyone and anything. When all data that's needed is in, they will separate the weed from the chaff in one single worldwide strike. They know the mindset of each one of us, the whole life open like a (face)book, the political orientation, sexual orientation, whether or not a person is prone to violence, submissive, aggressive, easy to handle or difficult, left, right, conservative, etc...

Until now, they use this info on single influential people that became inconvenient and get them out of their way with sex scandals etc., but the day will come where we all will curse they day the internet got started. We are translucent like glass while some (cui bono?) make us believe that this is not so. You will be free only if you can manage to live off the grid completely!

It also is childish to say, "Nothing to fear if you ain't doin' anything bad or illegal!" BS I say - who tells you that art, speaking up for yourself, a certain religion, reading books, writing poems, whatever won't be illegal or contraband tomorrow? Look deep into history and you will find the future!!!!

The ones who laugh now and ridicule my reply here (what certainly will happen) will stop laughing when the $#!t hits the fan, what could happen any day now in an uncertain world like this...

Am I alone with this theory?

Edited November 13, 2014 by catweazle

[aboctok]

so if you have nothing to hide no problem ..

That's an extremely narrow (and specious) argument.

What about a right to privacy? I wouldn't want the government installing spy cameras in my bedroom, though nothing I do there is illegal. Similarly I don't want the government spying upon my private conversations.

What about the chance of error? The government might accidentally leak the email addresses and passwords of hundreds of thousands of individuals.

What about the possibility of blackmail? For example, it's not illegal (AFAIK) in Thailand to have a mistress. However, that might be revealed by examining email leaving the adulterer open to blackmail.

And as Cardinal Richlieu wrote "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged".

That's a lot of typing. Are you sure? The tongue, the cheek, the keyboard. It's a lot of typing.

[Beetlejuice]

Anyone who believes that you could do anything online and remain incognito is a pityful dreamer.

The internet was initially created by people for people, then was hijacked and turned into a giant funnel, where sinister forces collect data about anyone and anything. When all data that's needed is in, they will separate the weed from the chaff in one single worldwide strike. They know the mindset of each one of us, the whole life open like a (face)book, the political orientation, sexual orientation, whether or not a person is prone to violence, submissive, aggressive, easy to handle or difficult, left, right, conservative, etc...

Until now, they use this info on single influential people that became inconvenient and get them out of their way with sex scandals etc., but the day will come where we all will curse they day the internet got started. We are translucent like glass while some (cui bono?) make us believe that this is not so. You will be free only if you can manage to live off the grid completely!

It also is childish to say, "Nothing to fear if you ain't doin' anything bad or illegal!" BS I say - who tells you that art, speaking up for yourself, a certain religion, reading books, writing poems, whatever won't be illegal or contraband tomorrow? Look deep into history and you will find the future!!!!

The ones who laugh now and ridicule my reply here (what certainly will happen) will stop laughing when the $#!t hits the fan, what could happen any day now in an uncertain world like this...

Am I alone with this theory?

No, you are not alone with this theory.

The Internet has been manipulated to become a 21st century electronic, technological big brother that is watching us. Everything we view, play, read, type and publish online can be used in evidence against us, even stuff we purchase in stores and our shopping habits is now stored in databases. I have warned my family a billion times, beware of what they place on the Internet, especially on social networking sites, as these can be deadly, but unfortunately there are no longer any-ways of keeping our business and lifestyles completely confidential and private.

There is more information stored in databases online than we about ourselves. This is why in he UK there is no longer a need to physically obtain information for the British census and why the vehicle tax disks have been discontinued. Employers are able to check all our references online, or in other words everything about us is on there, including dates of births, marriages, where we live, where we have lived, the values of our assets and properties, our full company or employment histories, marriages, children, family background and the list goes on, plus now there is Google street view that shows our homes.

This is the reality.

[ravip]

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or Nth number world, people do dirty things.

The difference is some do it in a refined and discreet way while others do it crudely.

What ever said and done by anyone, the law of the jungle is what rules this planet today.

Edit

Some of the insults throw by members at others in this forum itself proves it.

Edited November 13, 2014 by ravip

[dharmabm]

The internet was initially created by people for people

Um, no it wasn't

The internet was created by a few universities in the US with funding from the defense department

sent from my slimkat 1+ using tapatalk