Security

Stenography is the art of writing in shorthand, more often for brevity and efficiency’s sake than anything, but can also be used as a means of secure transmission – security through obscurity, if you please.  Transcribed, or handwritten stenography would be the original, more prosaic (or perhaps more poetic, depending on your disposition towards classicism and innovation) form of security, or even encryption in message transmission.  The more modern form involves electronic data encryption, which may well have been a key player in the recent Paris attacks – at least according to CIA director, John Brennan.   Just as magicians use trap doors on stage for effects, there are ‘backdoors’ for hackers to use in electronic device communication.  Oddly enough, speaking of security and magicians, some master conjurers, prestidigitators and special effects specialists have been employed by intelligence agencies for creating illusions during wartime, including the great escape artist, Harry Houdini.  Nonetheless, many conduits exist for those who wish to encrypt and decrypt data, with unintended cracks in the dam wall that hold back the floodwaters of sensitive data.  One very large ocean of encrypted data, or at least metadata, is the ‘Dark Web’ or ‘Deep Web,’ accessible through the Tor portal.  If this is your first instance of becoming aware of its existence, you may be surprised to know that most of the internet sites that exist are not accessed by well over 90% of users – since they exist on the Dark Web.  While there are a few apparently harmless elements and types of sites on the Dark Web, such as bloggers looking for anonymity or publishing books that may not be as well received by conventional publishers, the vast majority of the content on the Dark Web stays true to its nomenclature and has more nefarious purposes in mind – things like drugs and weapon trafficking, pornography, gambling sites, fraud, abuse forums, and other malevolent venues.  Whistleblowers also gravitate here due to the almost guaranteed anonymity that it provides.  Intelligence organizations are diligently working on finding backdoors to the backdoors on these anonymous forums, with some success (see the “Dread Pirate Roberts” and “Silk Road” case), to end exploitation and prevent future attacks that happen with the anonymity of electronic messaging applications, again, which were likely used recently in Paris.  Nonetheless, even if the CIA, FBI, NSA, Interpol, and every other intelligence agency organization fails and maleficent forces rule the day, they will have their end and we do not have to put our hope in the might and force of a nation or organization. Stenography is the art of writing in shorthand, more often for brevity and efficiency’s sake than anything, but can also be used as a means of secure transmission – security through obscurity, if you please.  Transcribed, or handwritten stenography would be the original, more prosaic (or perhaps more poetic, depending on your disposition towards classicism and innovation) form of security, or even encryption in message transmission.  The more modern form involves electronic data encryption, which may well have been a key player in the recent Paris attacks – at least according to CIA director, John Brennan.   Just as magicians use trap doors on stage for effects, there are ‘backdoors’ for hackers to use in electronic device communication.  Oddly enough, speaking of security and magicians, some master conjurers, prestidigitators and special effects specialists have been employed by intelligence agencies for creating illusions during wartime, including the great escape artist, Harry Houdini.  Nonetheless, many conduits exist for those who wish to encrypt and decrypt data, with unintended cracks in the dam wall that hold back the floodwaters of sensitive data.  One very large ocean of encrypted data, or at least metadata, is the ‘Dark Web’ or ‘Deep Web,’ accessible through the Tor portal.  If this is your first instance of becoming aware of its existence, you may be surprised to know that most of the internet sites that exist are not accessed by well over 90% of users – since they exist on the Dark Web.  While there are a few apparently harmless elements and types of sites on the Dark Web, such as bloggers looking for anonymity or publishing books that may not be as well received by conventional publishers, the vast majority of the content on the Dark Web stays true to its nomenclature and has more nefarious purposes in mind – things like drugs and weapon trafficking, pornography, gambling sites, fraud, abuse forums, and other malevolent venues.  Whistleblowers also gravitate here due to the almost guaranteed anonymity that it provides.  Intelligence organizations are diligently working on finding backdoors to the backdoors on these anonymous forums, with some success (see the “Dread Pirate Roberts” and “Silk Road” case), to end exploitation and prevent future attacks that happen with the anonymity of electronic messaging applications, again, which were likely used recently in Paris.  Nonetheless, even if the CIA, FBI, NSA, Interpol, and every other intelligence agency organization fails and maleficent forces rule the day, they will have their end and we do not have to put our hope in the might and force of a nation or organization.  “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”  (Psalm 20:7)