[SGVLUG] PRIVACY???

[Dustin]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2005, Emerson, Tom wrote:

> Well, one of the techniques that you learn is to figure out where
> something CANNOT be and eliminating those as possibilities; then, as has
> been attributed to Mr. Holmes, once you've eliminated all the wrong
> answers, whatever remains must be the correct answer.

Wow.  You really think I matter to the Black Hat guys!

Fine, I'll tell a story too.  Tom and Dustin are out hiking in the
Beartooth Wilderness.  Tom, knowing what backwoods Montana is like,
proudly displays his pepper spray for grizzly protection.  Dustin points
down at his running shoes.  Tom says "that won't work, you can't outrun a
bear," to which Dustin replies "I don't have to, I just have to run faster
than you." :-)

I don't have to keep my secrets in the face of the NSA or other seekrit
groups with agents and resources.  I just have to protect my credit card
information and marketing profile better than the guy down the street with
an unpatched copy of Windows 95 on a cable modem.  If anyone wants to know
that I checked Slashdot at 3 AM last week when I couldn't sleep (well, I
might have) that badly, they are going to find out.

Seriously, what would be the point of running that kind of analysis
against the sorts of people who will use simple solutions like Tor?  It
would be much quicker and more accurate, and probably cheaper, to have the
Men in Black park a van across the street and read my keypresses and
monitor radiation.  For that matter, they could probably just send a 
couple of goons with a tire iron to "ask nicely."

If I were THAT worried that THEY are going to find my little plot to blow
up top-secret installations (like the Elks club, I guess--those smug
secretive do-goodnik Elks) I'd be using edge-softened fonts, keyboard
randomizers, and have my computer in a Faraday cage I checked with an RF
meter regularly for leaks.

Say, this "what if" stuff is fun.  I oughtta write a story about whether 
the pigeonhole analysis you suggest yields an answer before I can carry 
out my dastardly anti-benevolent order plot. :-)

Dustin