Trump, The Worm In The Apple
Feb 20, 2016 2016 Election, Commentary
The terrorists who murdered people in San Bernardino before they were shot to death by law enforcement left behind an Apple iPhone and the FBI can’t crack into it. It seems the encryption in place will not allow the FBI tech folks access to the phone. The FBI wants Apple to access the device.
Apple claims it cannot do so unless it creates some kind of back door access that would affect all other iPhones. It seems Apple really did a bang up job of securing their phones after a lot of public outcry about privacy and the assistance given by the government to many tech companies.
[note]Apple made a point when it launched its new security to tell us they could not access an individual’s phone. At that time government protested and is evidently using this phone to make its case.[/note]
The issue here is a big picture issue. Apple says it can’t access the phone without building a means that would allow access to all phones. This, of course, is what the FBI (read government) wants. The government does not like the idea that it can’t access your stuff. I know there will be promises that this is just one phone and they would never use the technology to access other phones but they lie. We have seen far too many instances of surveillance overreach by the government. Stingray is one little thing they have developed and overused even allowing local police to use it provided they keep it secret.
Government will always abuse any tool or power it gets. They always justify it (or should I say rationalize it) by saying they are trying to keep us safe or that it is for the greater good but the reality is they want power and control and the San Bernardino terrorist attack provided the catalyst for the FBI to gain access.
Look, there might be important things on the phone that would help round up other terrorists but that alone is not a reason to develop something that would allow access to millions of phones that belong to people who have done nothing wrong. If accessing this phone at the expensive of others is deemed acceptable then what will stop them when the argument is eavesdropping on all of us is OK because they might find a few bad guys while doing it?
Donald Trump threw his hat into the fray over the phone by declaring Apple should do what the FBI wants and people should boycott Apple until they acquiesce. When asked by commentators at Fox about how the back door could be used to access even his phone the Donald said if it meant more security he was OK with it. Security was more important than liberty, in the mind of the Donald.
Donald, a Founding Father of this nation had something to say about people like you:
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ~ Ben Franklin
The quote may well have dealt with security and taxes during the French-Indian War but the words are well adapted to our civil liberty. If you Donald are willing to give up your liberty (as you stated when you said it was Ok for the government to have access to your phone, and by extension all of ours) because it was for security then you really deserve neither.
The ends do not justify the means in this case and if Trump thinks they do then he might as well be quoting Rules for Radicals.
There are plenty of tech experts in this country and no doubt a number of them have the ability to hack into that particular phone. If the FBI wants to pay one such person (one has already offered to do it for free) then that is up to them.
To leave all of us vulnerable to unwanted and unconstitutional violations of our privacy because of one phone that belonged to a terrorist is not a tradeoff worth considering.
Maybe, just maybe, if you believe in liberty you should consider boycotting Trump instead of Apple…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Government Expects You To Trust It With Your Data
May 28, 2015 Political
The IRS suffered a breach and upwards of 100,000 people had their tax returns stolen (or accessed?). The information taken contains enough data to commit identity theft. Name, address, social security number and bingo, someone else is masquerading as you and ruining your credit.
This comes on the heels of the White House and State Department breaches.
The Government believes that Russian hackers are responsible for all of the data breaches.
Does it matter who did it? I mean, it matters so they can try to find the culprits and possibly arrest them but the reality is the damage is done.
The government wants you to do everything electronically from filing taxes to signing up for Obamacare. It is also requiring medical records be electronic.
Imagine what information hackers could get from medical records…
The government is not capable of protecting you or your information. It talks a good game but time after time we have a breach and the typical response is they are sorry and will offer credit monitoring.
This does not solve the issue of lax security from agencies that are supposed to have cyber security experts. Breaches will continue because agencies do not care about masses of people whose names they do not know. It will continue as long as an atmosphere of politics envelops the culture of an agency that is more concerned with doing what is politically expedient (or motivated) rather than what is right to do.
Perhaps the government should be required to pay any person affected by a breach $10,000 and that money should come from the operating budget of the agency involved with NO increase in taxpayer funds to the agency or to cover the expense. If a BILLION dollars came out of the IRS budget for this breach it might feel more compelled to do what is right and protect our data.
Then again, this is the agency that can’t keep emails, attacks political opponents and illegally gives taxpayer information to connected people for political use.
They just don’t care, now do they?
We need to start firing people when this happens and we can keep firing and hiring new folks until someone gets it right.
The government collects tons and tons of data on each and every one of us. That data is vulnerable even though they are obligated to protect it.
Keep that in mind when government tells you it needs to collect even more of your personal information…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: data breach, irs, lax procedures, russian hackers, security
It Is Not About Safety, It Is About Control
Jan 25, 2013 Political
The federal government and a number of states with liberals in charge are working very hard to infringe on the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Yesterday Senator Feinstein introduced a bill that would ban 150 firearms because they look scary and would limit the number of rounds a magazine can hold to 10. That ten round limit is, in effect, a ban of certain types of firearms because the smallest magazine for them holds more then 10.
Joe Biden, the drunkard VP, is in charge of the gun ban effort and he has come out to make it very clear that this is not about gun control, it is about safety.
He also made it clear that the proposals of the Obama regime will not end gun crime but could make a difference.
The vice president fielded questions online in a Google+ Hangout, saying the proposals that he and President Barack Obama have laid out won’t end gun crime, but they still could make a difference. WSJ
It has long been recognized that these kinds of laws will not work and Biden is basically acknowledging that fact. So if what they are doing won’t end gun violence and at best, COULD, still make a difference then how is it about safety? If it does not make it better (which it won’t) then it can’t be about safety because no one will be safer. If it is therefore not about safety it must be about gun control.
Gun control is not about guns but about control so the overarching theme is that the Obama regime wants more control over people.
Basically what Biden is telling us is they want to infringe upon our rights for the possibility of safety (though he admits we won’t be safer). Should we as a people give up our rights for safety?
Ben Franklin, a man much wiser than any in politics now, said it very well:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
The right to keep and bear arms is an essential liberty and it is a liberty the Obama regime (and minions across the nation) is trying to take from us for a promise of safety (safety that COULD happen). If we give up our liberty for this alleged safety we will deserve neither.
And we will get neither. We will no longer have the right and we will not be safe from the most dangerous threat to our existence.
The government.
What are your thoughts on the proposed gun ban?
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
[jpsub]
Tags: ben franklin, gun control, joe biden, lies, safety, security
Is Al Qaeda In Your Coke???
Sep 11, 2012 Political
Who would’ve ever dreamed on that beautiful Indian summer Tuesday morning, we’d be dealing with police swabbing what we buy to drink at the airport? Latex gloved goons with what appears to be a strip, which could test your urine. Swabbing your drink, after the cattle prod occurs Bought from the airport food court…What? Is this the land of the free, home of the brave?
I suppose all those immigrants Neil Diamond wrote about in his smash hit, “Comin to America”, feel just a bit ripped off today. The “Disney World Country” envied by so many is quickly becoming a “Nightmare in Manhattan”. You could never make me believe that on that beautiful blue sky day, my future would appear so dark today. Even on the brightest day I see so many slumped shoulders walking the streets.
Here we are, eleven years after such a traumatic and devastating act of terrorism was launched on this union, and we’ve sunk to body scans, genital probing, and now swabbing our drinks looking for explosives…Fourth amendment be damned, they MUST keep us safe….Safe from who??
Meanwhile, the border doors are wide open…Is your head beginning to cock just a bit? The very people who must scan you, prob you, and swab you, have the welcome sign up at the border. ICE agents are suffering legal damages for asking someone who can barely converse in English to show legal proof of residency in our country.
Maybe this is the “twilight zone”….the “outer limits”….a horrible sweat drenching nightmare..My solace is a 70,000 seat stadium in Charlotte that could not be filled, so they lie a little more and tell the herd they’re protecting them from thunderstorms to move inside a 20,000 capacity facility. are they swabbing those drinks, or spiking them? Who believes this nonsense?
How did I get to a place where planes that purposefully crashed into the worlds tallest buildings, I could actually fear my government more than those monsters who took over those planes? Can someone please pinch me….wake me up from this insidious nightmare…When…WHEN, will America have had enough!!!!
“If you want security, go to prison.” Dwight D Eisenhower
Tags: airport, al-qaeda, coke, government, security, terror, tsa
TSA
Nov 15, 2010 Political
I’ve always been a big fan of The Who. Great song. Sad video:
I’m seriously just beyond furious that this stuff is going on. I’m right there with the fellow who recently told the TSA, “You touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.” I’m shocked that the TSA agent didn’t just ignore him. You see, the local cops are NOT going to help you here, as seen in that incident. If the TSA did sexually assault him, you can bet no cop would have taken any report, and the TSA would not do anything. If you have a shiny TSA badge, sexual assault IS legal, and child porn IS legal. They’re not going to arrest themselves!
I think another thing that would have been nice to ask is, “Okay, so you’re going to grab my privates without my permission. What will happen to me if I grab YOUR privates without your permission?”
And a threat of a $10,000 fine if you don’t willingly submit to sexual assault? Absolutely unbelievable. You really, really have to be blind and foolish to even suspect there is any freedom in America today.
Also, a note on the video above — some might complain that Obama is in the video. Know what? He is the one person who could literally stop these assaults in a second. The TSA works for him. He could tell them to stop now, and they’d stop. His silence on this issue is deafening.
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Tags: security, sexual assault, tsa