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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold1 Intercepting Communications Thanks to Sherry Clark for her notes
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold2 Outline Overview of the Controversies Intercepting Communications Cryptography and Its Uses Encryption Policy: Access to Software, Keys, and Plaintext Fundamental Issues
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold3 Overview of Controversies Communications’ privacy is affected by what?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold4 Q: Can law enforcement intercept communications without a court order? Intercepting Communications (1) Wiretapping What is history of restrictions on telephones?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold5 Intercepting Communications (2) Wiretapping How have laws changed with new technologies and events? Q : Does the USA Patriot Act supersede ECPAs restrictions?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold6 Intercepting Communications (3) Designing Communications Systems for Interception and Tracking What is CALEA? What obstacles is it designed to overcome? Why did privacy advocates object to CALEA? CALEA allows for the interception of PINs. Do you support this use?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold7 Intercepting Communications (4) Carnivore What is Carnivore? Why do proponents say it’s needed? Why do opponents say it violates rights? Does Carnivore violate the 4 th Amendment? What is the current status of Carnivore?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold8 Q : Should the NSA be permitted to intercept all e-mail entering and leaving the U.S.? Intercepting Communications (5) NSA and Echelon NSA (National Security Agency): Collects and analyzes communications to find threats to national security. Echelon: What is it?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold9 Q: Are there other ways to hide a message in plain sight? Cryptography and Its Uses (1) Cryptography Definition: Hiding data in plain sight. Terms: Plaintext: Original, readable message or data. Cyphertext: Modified, unreadable message or data. Encryption: The act of converting plaintext into cyphertext. Decryption: The act of reverting cyphertext back to readable, plaintext.
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold10 Cryptography and Its Uses (2) Public Key Cryptography How does it work? What are the benefits? How does key-size affect the “strength” of encryption?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold11 Q : Why are strong encryption tools needed by human- rights activists? Cryptography and Its Uses (3) Encryption Used by: Military personnel. Financial institutions. Human-rights activists. Government agencies. Anyone wanting to keep messages or data private.
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold12 Cryptography and Its Uses (4) Steganography Definition: Hiding data so that its existence is not known. Examples: Digital watermarks. Hiding text in image files. Used by: Military, Publishers, Anyone wishing to hide messages or data. Q : How might steganography be incorporated into textbooks? Why?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold13 Encryption Policy: Access to Software, Keys, and Plaintext (1) Secrecy and Export Controls Control of Secrecy The NSA designs unbreakable codes for the U.S. government. The NSA attempts to break codes used by other governments. In the past, the NSA also controlled the funding for and publishing of cryptographic research. Control of Exportation Early U.S. policy prevented the exportation of strong encryption. Meanwhile, foreign production and use of strong encryption negatively impacted U.S. competition in the world market. Cryptographic researchers, privacy advocates, and others successfully challenged exportation restrictions. Q : Why did the U.S. government insist on controlling export of strong crypto?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold14 Fundamental Issues (1) Role of Secrecy U.S. Policy Keeps Secret: Cryptographic research. Wiretap ease or difficulty. Encryption algorithms. Software (e.g. Carnivore). Global endeavors (e.g. Echelon). Problems: Secret algorithms cannot be tested by experts. ‘Backdoors’ might exist. NSA-influenced wiretap and encryption exportation bills Q : What factors affect the strength of an encryption algorithm?
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold15 Q: Today, do coders or decoders have the upper hand? Fundamental Issues (2) The Ever-changing Status Quo Past: Simple codes and cyphers. Present: 512-bit RSA encryption. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). Future: Quantum computing. Quantum cryptography.
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CS 4001Mary Jean Harrold16 Fundamental Issues (3) Trust in Government Appropriate or Abusive? Wiretapping by FBI and local police. Wiretapping by NSA. Strong encryption restrictions. Clipper Chip and Key Escrow. Roving wiretaps. Cell-phone tracking (and E-911). Key logger systems. Development of a nationwide standard for surveillance. Immediate decryption technology built in to the Internet.
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