Britain’s MI6 chief warns of ‘unprecedented’ terror threat to UK

[thai3]

4 hours ago, dunroaming said:

 

I think under these circumstances it should read Islamic terrorist threat to the UK.  No doubt that this is Islamic terrorist related but Islam is a religion and as such is not a threat.  Just like when there were Irish Catholic terrorists.

 

Islam has been responsible for over 250 million deaths in 1400 years, it's terrorism is worldwide and active.

Edited December 9, 2016 by thai3

[YeahSiam]

56 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Since the technology and its application and any secret arrangements with the providers you're discussing would be highly classified, you've requested an unreasonable level of proof.

 

We don't have a clue whether it's happening, or how.  So the probability you're correct is no higher than the probability he's correct.  The difference is that his assertions may be proven one day.  Yours can't be proven.  Ever.  

 

Wrong

Mine are proven day in, day out.

I haven't had a DMCA notice for 6 years. I used to get them regularly from my ISP before i started using a VPN.

The technology is widely available and routinely used by millions for any number of reasons.

Whether or not it offers protection for those involved in terrorism, I wouldn't know since I don't engage in activities that could potentially threaten anyone's security but what i do know is that all traffic from my computer is encrypted and no one can see the websites I visit or the material I download.

As far as I'm, concerned, the VPN is doing exactly what it says on the tin.

 

[dunroaming]

1 hour ago, thai3 said:

 

Islam has been responsible for over 250 million deaths in 1400 years, it's terrorism is worldwide and active.

 

All religions have been responsible for millions of deaths.  Why cherry pick?    If we were all held accountable then we would all be squirming in our seats. Blame where blame is due but it never involves a whole religion. Just the extremists. It's not that hard to work out

[The manic]

16 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

 

I believe the government has the right to do absolutely anything it deems necessary in order to preserve peace and public safety in these troubled times. Islam has removed what little pleasure there was in flying anywhere, and now they have caused a need to tap phone calls. Get used to it because it is going to get worse !

They are doing the wrong thing. we might as well be living in a Muslim dictatorship .  the next bill going through parliament is to censor sex on the Internet .  Pathetic.

[The manic]

2 hours ago, dunroaming said:

 

All religions have been responsible for millions of deaths.  Why cherry pick?    If we were all held accountable then we would all be squirming in our seats. Blame where blame is due but it never involves a whole religion. Just the extremists. It's not that hard to work out

Nonesense. Current Islam is the most dangerous ideology and had been for 1200 years. There was just a temporary cessation of islamic terror and expansionism for a few decades in the last century. 

[CharlieK]

4 hours ago, YeahSiam said:

 

Maybe if you could back up your assertions with something more than Luddite ignorance, your "opinion" would carry some weight.

 

you mentioned TOR in your previous post. TOR was developed by the US Navy!

[smudger1951]

Living here in Thailand is so much better in a nation that loves its own people as opposed to the UK which consistently seeks to marginalise everyones security by importing endless hordes of alien cultures and violent ideologies who plot to destroy.

[smutcakes]

On December 9, 2559 BE at 0:14 PM, YeahSiam said:

 

Then it seems the authorities have succeeded in lulling you into a false sense of security.

Just because you don't think you've anything to hide doesn't mean something you consider to be innocuous can't be used against you to great effect.

Dozens of government agencies can gain access to your "harmless" information and, contrary to what the government has insisted, some of those agencies can and will do so without a court order.

 

Governments have a vested interest in keeping their citizens living in fear.

I'm not saying the threats aren't there - obviously they are - but there's no harm in protecting yourself with encryption "just in case".

 

What are you looking at on your computer which is of so much importance or secretive nature that you require encryption?

[RuamRudy]

15 minutes ago, smutcakes said:

 

What are you looking at on your computer which is of so much importance or secretive nature that you require encryption?

 

It should not matter - the right to privacy should be available to all of us. Instead, we will have blanket state intrusion that will be held indefinitely, for use by numerous agencies as and when they see fit. 

As has been mentioned elsewhere, giving up your right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is like giving up your right to freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.

[impulse]

28 minutes ago, smutcakes said:

What are you looking at on your computer which is of so much importance or secretive nature that you require encryption?

 

I don't use encryption, but the short answer to your question is "we don't know".

 

They've got algorithms now to calculate the odds you're a terrorist by analyzing the words you use.  It's just a matter of time before they have algorithms to decide whether you're a good credit risk, a good candidate for health insurance, a potentially problem employee, or how likely you are to vote, and for whom.

 

Add that to the fact that we don't know who will be running the governments in 5 years or how much more intrusive it's going to get.  Then there's the question of who's collecting that data- it's not just the government, after all.  And for what purpose, and who they're going to sell it to.  

 

Even perfectly innocent correspondence and web surfing can be mined for all kinds of information that may be used to your detriment.  Imagine your boss coming in and saying their IT consultant has analyzed your web ramblings and their algorithm tells them you're likely to molest the short secretaries around the water cooler.  So we have to fire you to protect the company.

Edited December 10, 2016 by impulse

[RuamRudy]

14 hours ago, YeahSiam said:

As far as I'm, concerned, the VPN is doing exactly what it says on the tin.

 

My understanding is that the Investigatory Powers Act will make it illegal for any technology company which is ordered to comply with government instructions under this act, to disclose the fact.

 

Therefore, the government can instruct your VPN provider to give them with a backdoor into your activity, and it would be illegal for the VPN provider to inform you or make it known in general.

 

Furthermore, if you end up in court being tried based upon evidence obtained through this backdoor, the government is legally allowed to lie in open court about the origin of the information with which they are prosecuting you.

 

I want to repeat this because it is genuinely scary - the Act allows the government or any government agency which obtained information about you through a secret backdoor, to lie in court as to where they obtained that evidence. You will, therefore, be unable to defend yourself. If there was ever any doubt that the UK was a police state, this should dispel those doubts.

[YeahSiam]

48 minutes ago, smutcakes said:

 

What are you looking at on your computer which is of so much importance or secretive nature that you require encryption?

 

None of your business but, regardless, my computer isn't encrypted.

My internet connection is.

 

[YeahSiam]

21 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

 

My understanding is that the Investigatory Powers Act will make it illegal for any technology company which is ordered to comply with government instructions under this act, to disclose the fact.

 

 

My VPN provider isn't subject to UK law because it  isn't based in the UK.

I made sure of that.

[thaibeachlovers]

20 hours ago, YeahSiam said:

 

You don't know what you're talking about, mate.

Even if government snoopers could break 256-bit encryption, the VPN provider doesn't keep any log of the IP addresses connecting to its servers or of the websites users visit.

Combine that with Tor or similar and you're pretty much invisible.

The government can or will be able to break any encryption. However, the terrorists aren't stupid and probably never use anything that could compromise them, so the government using terrorism as an excuse to spy on me as I write this is a lie.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, RuamRudy said:

 

My understanding is that the Investigatory Powers Act will make it illegal for any technology company which is ordered to comply with government instructions under this act, to disclose the fact.

 

Therefore, the government can instruct your VPN provider to give them with a backdoor into your activity, and it would be illegal for the VPN provider to inform you or make it known in general.

 

Furthermore, if you end up in court being tried based upon evidence obtained through this backdoor, the government is legally allowed to lie in open court about the origin of the information with which they are prosecuting you.

 

I want to repeat this because it is genuinely scary - the Act allows the government or any government agency which obtained information about you through a secret backdoor, to lie in court as to where they obtained that evidence. You will, therefore, be unable to defend yourself. If there was ever any doubt that the UK was a police state, this should dispel those doubts.

The west has been an authoritarian state for decades. The only way to avoid being penalized is to never put anything on electronic media that makes it worth their while to do something about one.

I am old and not that much longer for this life so I don't care much about it, but if I were young and had many years of life left I wouldn't ever go near the political forum of TVF, or any other similar forum. My, and every other TVF poster's, political views will no doubt be logged on a database somewhere. 

[YeahSiam]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

The government can or will be able to break any encryption. However, the terrorists aren't stupid and probably never use anything that could compromise them, so the government using terrorism as an excuse to spy on me as I write this is a lie.

 

First, if they could break encryption, why are big dogs like the FBI and the NSA constantly pressurizing technology firms to create backdoors in their software or systems?

Look how much of a song and dance surrounded Apple's refusal to give the FBI what it needed to break the lock on that terrorist's phone.

 

Second, the tech firms and innovators at the centre of the encryption sector will always be two steps ahead of the security services.

In the unlikely event they are, one day, able to break 256-bit encryption, it'll already be replaced by something much stronger.

 

Why do you think there was such opposition to the roll out of end-to-end encryption in instant messaging applications like Whatsapp and Telegram at the NSA, GCHQ etc?

[RuamRudy]

2 minutes ago, YeahSiam said:

 

First, if they could break encryption, why are big dogs like the FBI and the NSA constantly pressurizing technology firms to create backdoors in their software or systems?

Look how much of a song and dance surrounded Apple's refusal to give the FBI what it needed to break the lock on that terrorist's phone.

 

Second, the tech firms and innovators at the centre of the encryption sector will always be two steps ahead of the security services.

In the unlikely event they are, one day, able to break 256-bit encryption, it'll already be replaced by something much stronger.

 

Why do you think there was such opposition to the roll out of end-to-end encryption in instant messaging applications like Whatsapp and Telegram at the NSA, GCHQ etc?

 

I don't want to come across as being a wearer of tin foil hats, but all of the above could very well be a smoke screen.

 

Then again, even if they cannot break the encryption now they can still hoover up your encrypted data and keep it until such a time as they can unlock it.

[YeahSiam]

14 hours ago, CharlieK said:

you mentioned TOR in your previous post. TOR was developed by the US Navy!

 

And?

[YeahSiam]

4 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

 

I don't want to come across as being a wearer of tin foil hats, but all of the above could very well be a smoke screen.

 

Then again, even if they cannot break the encryption now they can still hoover up your encrypted data and keep it until such a time as they can unlock it.

 

Sure it could be a smokescreen but, as I said before, I'm not up to anything to warrant the interest of government agencies.

If I'm not a "person of interest", why would they go to the trouble of harvesting my encrypted data for future analysis?

I'm confident in the protection my no-log VPN offers, nevertheless.

[7by7]

18 hours ago, The manic said:

They are doing the wrong thing. we might as well be living in a Muslim dictatorship .  the next bill going through parliament is to censor sex on the Internet .  Pathetic.

Porn websites in the UK will be banned from showing a huge range of sex acts under proposed new law

Quote

A Department for Media, Culture and Sport spokesperson said: "The BBFC is not being asked to police the Internet. The focus of this legislation is to protect children with the same safeguards online as they have offline.

"The BBFC is already working positively with adult pornography sites to ensure the protections in this bill will achieve this objective."

 

I can find no mention anywhere of this being demanded, or even requested, by any Muslim organisation or individual.

 

Perhaps you can do so; or is your comment nothing more than an ignorant assumption based upon prejudice?

[faraday]

4 hours ago, YeahSiam said:

 

And?

 

Would you not think then, that US agencies can infiltrate this?

[CharlieK]

7 hours ago, YeahSiam said:

 

And?

 

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/nsa-use-linux-or-tor-you-re-probably-a-terrorist

 

The ARD report on the NSA's activities revealed that "Merely searching the web for the privacy-enhancing software tools outlined in the XKeyscore rules causes the NSA to mark and track the IP address of the person doing the search.
 

[YeahSiam]

11 hours ago, faraday said:

 

Would you not think then, that US agencies can infiltrate this?

 

Not when it's used in conjunction with a top tier, no-log VPN.

[YeahSiam]

8 hours ago, CharlieK said:

 

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/nsa-use-linux-or-tor-you-re-probably-a-terrorist

 

The ARD report on the NSA's activities revealed that "Merely searching the web for the privacy-enhancing software tools outlined in the XKeyscore rules causes the NSA to mark and track the IP address of the person doing the search.
 

 

I didn't search the web for privacy-enhancing software.

[thaibeachlovers]

16 hours ago, YeahSiam said:

 

First, if they could break encryption, why are big dogs like the FBI and the NSA constantly pressurizing technology firms to create backdoors in their software or systems?

Look how much of a song and dance surrounded Apple's refusal to give the FBI what it needed to break the lock on that terrorist's phone.

 

Second, the tech firms and innovators at the centre of the encryption sector will always be two steps ahead of the security services.

In the unlikely event they are, one day, able to break 256-bit encryption, it'll already be replaced by something much stronger.

 

Why do you think there was such opposition to the roll out of end-to-end encryption in instant messaging applications like Whatsapp and Telegram at the NSA, GCHQ etc?

If I were trying to convince people that the "encryption" they had was secure, I'd put out fake news stories like that.

Those big buildings that we are shown have great big supercomputers in them that can do anything in the electronic world.

By all means go ahead and continue putting stuff on the net that you think needs to be secure. I won't.

[faraday]

Have you watched the 'Snowden' documentary, Mr Siam?

[YeahSiam]

5 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

If I were trying to convince people that the "encryption" they had was secure, I'd put out fake news stories like that.

Those big buildings that we are shown have great big supercomputers in them that can do anything in the electronic world.

By all means go ahead and continue putting stuff on the net that you think needs to be secure. I won't.

 

If those "great big computers" that can "do anything in the electronic world" were any good, how is it that they've consistently and categorically failed to intercept communications between terrorist cells plotting attacks in Paris, Brussels or even on their own soil?

You've been watching too much "Homeland", mate.

This isn't Hollywood, it's real life.

[RuamRudy]

2 minutes ago, YeahSiam said:

 

If those "great big computers" that can "do anything in the electronic world" were any good, how is it that they've consistently and categorically failed to intercept communications between terrorist cells plotting attacks in Paris, Brussels or even on their own soil?

You've been watching too much "Homeland", mate.

This isn't Hollywood, it's real life.

 

I would say because religious terrorism is not the threat that they are worried about, and while it is providing a convenient pretext for ushering in ever increasing state intrusion to a cowed public, the aim of these new powers is not to root out ISIS.

[YeahSiam]

1 minute ago, RuamRudy said:

 

I would say because religious terrorism is not the threat that they are worried about, and while it is providing a convenient pretext for ushering in ever increasing state intrusion to a cowed public, the aim of these new powers is not to root out ISIS.

 

Maybe, maybe not but I doubt my activities and my desire to enhance my privacy come as high up on their list of priorities as international terrorism.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

8 minutes ago, YeahSiam said:

 

If those "great big computers" that can "do anything in the electronic world" were any good, how is it that they've consistently and categorically failed to intercept communications between terrorist cells plotting attacks in Paris, Brussels or even on their own soil?

You've been watching too much "Homeland", mate.

This isn't Hollywood, it's real life.

Try learning from history. When the Brits cracked Enigma in WW2 they knew everything the U boats were doing, but they couldn't use the information as the Germans would have just changed the codes. They had to allow some attacks to take place.