It’s Probably Nothing

12 Replies to “It’s Probably Nothing”

1. The internet is deliberately designed to allow this sort of rerouting, in case a router goes down. It isn’t a dedicated telephone route. Roguery is bound to happen
   This is why anything on the internet is public domain – because you don’t know where and how the your traffic was routed.
   If you want to keep your data private, do not send it on the internet. Any research center or other institution which want to keep their lab data/plans, etc. private should have an internal network NOT connected to the internet.

2. “Any research center or other institution which want to keep their lab data/plans, etc. private should have an internal network NOT connected to the internet.”
   Which is why, of course, any leak in the manner of a Snowden or Wikileaks first has to be physically stolen to be placed on the web.

3. It was inevitable that as the internet spread world wide it would become the primary vehicle for information and commerce. Our entire way of life now hangs on the presumption that all we take for granted is not under threat, and that there will be no black hole to swallow or destroy everything on the information highway. Can you even begin to imagine the panic if our virtual stock market, banking system, defense system,electric grid,phones and you name it, all crashed at the same time? One EMP could do it or one super hacker group instead of siphoning, concentrated on destroying. Our backups to computers are other computers and no alternatives. Seems to me that all our eggs are in one basket with a very questionable bottom. Reminds me of when 1999 turned to 2000. Everyone was sure it would all be OK but I was being paid triple time to stay home and be close to the phone, because they weren’t THAT sure. It’s even wilder and more complicated today and I doubt they have made much progress that hackers can’t keep up with. Fun subject.

4. The problem Robert, is that BGP’s are relatively easy to exploit. Yes, the “internet routes around damage” but hijacking a gate node isn’t the same thing. There are a lot of ways this can be countered, and the decentralized BGP’s are looking like the way to go.

5. And they want to use the internet for elections.I can’t see anything wrong with that.No Oh No no!

6. Robert 20 yrs ago I said that very thing to my SIL & nephew, who are IT guys, and my justification was that any board 14-18 yrs old geek could hack the sucker, now this router trick is news to me, but not surpizing:-)))

7. The “Cloud”.
   Where people can safely store files, photo’s, and music.
   Right.

8. In related news: Former FBI official confirms that the FBI can turn on your webcam without turning on the little red light beside it.
   http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/07/the-fbi-can-secretly-activate-an-individuals-webcam-without-the-indicator-light-turning-on/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=ShareButtons
   So couple that with mass IP hijacking, and you have ugliness.
   I believe our period of history will be called something like the Golden Age of Trust, where the assumption of civilized behavior on the part of the masses isn’t terminally stupid or even naive, its the way things are done. The whole Internet is set up on the assumption that all IP servers are trusted.
   Now, in another related vein, Western society operates on the basis that if 100 people find your wallet lying on the ground, 90 of them will turn it in, five will take the cash and still turn the rest in, and five will steal it and sell the cards. That’s how we do business.
   Why? Christianity. Morality is considered its own reward due entirely to Christianity. Do wrong and sooner or later it will come back to you.
   All you Lefties, God-haters and other diverse atheists will want to carefully consider what happens to society when religion is no longer a factor. Why not lie? Why not corrupt the whole Internet and rip off people’s bank accounts? Why not kill anybody who gets in your way?
   How does a bank even operate in those conditions? How does anything?
   Incidentally I never go to church. Haven’t since I was a teen. I’m just saying you might want to check for a baby before you throw out that bath water. Following your hate is generally not a good way to go.

9. Getting tougher to do…

10. Robert of Ottawa, I agree with your comment about having computers around which are never connected to the internet. For my internet connected machines, I have what people have told me are psychotic monitoring programs which will log all IP addresses that hit my machine, often I’ll run Wireshark for days when I’m away to see what’s happening to my systems and I have some personal monitoring programs to further detect what’s happening on my systems. Exchange of information with my non-internet connected network utilizes preferably USB flash drives to transfer files or ftp transfers between my internal network machines. All machines are configured to log all process launches and other system events. Only wired ethernet connections are used for the non-internet connected machines.
    Right now the best thing to do is to assume that the internet is insecure and take appropriate precautions. For simple text messages where the content of the message is “meet you on 5N in 5 min” I don’t worry about although this does give any snooper the information that I’m not at home at the time. However, my cell phone is registered under a phony name and I pay cash for phone time so it would take a major undertaking by an attacker to link a cell phone to me personally. For financial transactions, I keep a detailed log of every online transaction I engage in and time times of each portion of the interaction. AFAIK, the BGP attack can’t be used to create a man in the middle type of attack required to bypass secure sockets protection.
    Any sensitive communication that one sends over the internet should be encrypted with a robust encryption scheme such as PGP and, if possible, physical exchange of keys between the parties occur. Another very robust encryption scheme is the use of a one time pad (OTP) but, again, this requires the physical exchange of OTP files which should never be sent over the internet. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to run periodic traceroute commands to ensure that ones internet communication doesn’t go through Belarus or Iceland.

11. Loki, I notice you often have the last word because by the time you finish, there’s not much left to say. Good tips. Good post.

12. So many governments want your life story. It almost makes you feel relevant (O:)
    Too many crooks want your bank account. You need teen fire walls before breakfast.