It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
originally posted by: JIMC5499
In the days that the telegraph was only way to transmit information over long distances, some companies used codes. The purpose of the code wasn't to hide what was being sent, it was to reduce the number of characters that were sent. Telegrams used to bill by the number of words that were in the message. A word consisted of five alpha numeric characters. Why pay for three words to say "John Copeland" when you could make ZXCVB stand for it and only pay for one.
The reason that I bring this up is that if you used a telegraph code, by law you had to give the Federal Government a copy of your code book.
originally posted by: intrptr
Someone explain to me again how secure data is if your emails travel on the internet?
What was the device the government wanted attached to his server?
Is it that he had over a certain number of subscribers or that his server was secure?
qje0UuM8-OU
originally posted by: lordcomac
I used to be in charge of a mail server cluster responsible for ~50,000 email addresses.
The goobers can essentially demand you give them 24/7 access to anything and everything, and also put you under a gag order- so if you say anything you get buried under a prison.
10 out of 10 people will just bow their head in shame and let the corruption keep on keeping on. It's the only way to get on with life.
There is no privacy on the internet- or anywhere else anymore.
originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: Aazadan
That's pretty standard for most mail, but I seriously doubt that does anything for the NSA. I would tend to think they have chips that are specifically engineered to get around this technology.... but for right now this is just a guess.
I don't know how knowledgeable you are here, but from your comment it appears you're not really considering MITM attacks, dns poisoning, server misconfigurations, or even malware on your host machine.
It's a bit more complicated than you put, but I don't care to get into this all.
originally posted by: pl3bscheese
Yea well we've known this for years. Anyone approaching a significant size gets the talk and gets all the mail sniffed.
Solution is easy. Set up your own mail server. I had a thread a while back on mail-in-a-box. It's dummy proof mail server.
originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
Someone could use the email conversation to communicate other information, ie. a conversation about the health of a family pet could relate to another situation, like a police investigation or an on going court case let's say.
Then there are old school encryption methods where you encrypt the message by hand using a Vigenere table or other alphabet substitution codes. That would be an obviously encrypted message and red flagged for sure and if they got your key, then they have the decryption.
Actual hand written communications that are delivered by a private courier might be best, esp. if that message is encrypted a couple of layers by hand with no single person having all the keys for decryption.