Citizenfour

Any of you watched it? Even though there was just about nothing new for me to learn about the leaks in there, I found it quite interesting. There was one statistic mentioned right at the end that really surprised me though. Looks like there will be "sequels" too:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/24/i_wish_id_leaked_sooner_says_edward_snowden_in_postoscar_chinwag/

Of course if you work in anything related to computer security, this is practically required viewing.

I have seen most of it. I am not sure I would call it a great documentary, but it's certainly a wildly important topic.

You do feel for the guy. He certainly was not doing this for his personal gain (as noted in the movie, that has NO impact on his prosecution).

The part where he mentioned he could watch any feed for any active drone was pretty creepy. If they thought ahead, it would have been very interesting to have a camera crew watching his house after the release (apparently a lot of construction type trucks suddenly appeared).

So...did nobody else watch it, or does nobody else want to post that they watched it?

EnCt27fbdab39c50c4727b5365a6fcb315ee34ec06f147fbdab39c50c4727b5365a6feXg+96ZrNgH WiYfy7VRwwhPx1132X6Xh9AUUHQN9STVSTW/sg2qkC393JgVifYWDpL6cPA/nIwruaXl5jaLOb0rSvjS daRNiFaCdIrS7jDps7PP1U/uWoAVy7kmmZP2e61F9eiinIwEmS

I haven't seen it yet. I want to see it, but until I can see it on Amazon Prime, I have no way of seeing it. I find the Snowden revelations and the public's reaction (or lack of reaction) to them fascinating.

Oh there's definitely another way to see it, on your own schedule...PM me if you need help

As implied, the movie is apparently in public domain. The reason for this is that it was submitted as part of a legal action (something Snowden related) which automatically puts it into public domain. That is what I read at least.

There is probably also a good chance that letting it go into public domain makes it's far harder to somehow stifle.

(not to derail the thread, but) aircooled, I've been trying all afternoon to figure out your 2nd post puzzle.

can I haz a hint ?

I can elaborate on the rabbit trail I've been down so far.

aircooled wrote: EnCt27fbdab39c50c4727b5365a6fcb315ee34ec06f147fbdab39c50c4727b5365a6feXg+96ZrNgH WiYfy7VRwwhPx1132X6Xh9AUUHQN9STVSTW/sg2qkC393JgVifYWDpL6cPA/nIwruaXl5jaLOb0rSvjS daRNiFaCdIrS7jDps7PP1U/uWoAVy7kmmZP2e61F9eiinIwEmS

I can't figure this out. It's not plain base64, UTF-7 base64 or PGP symmetric using that suspiciously hexadecimal part or anything around it.

I got as far as converting from base64 into funny symbols. Ran those through all kinds of decrypting algorithms (I'm noob-level with these things), and have come up with nothing. I tried saving the output into a file with various file extensions, but it doesn't seem to turn into anything like a jpg, gif, png, etc... scanned it with my antivirus as an .exe and that also did nothing.

It's encrypted with a key. Nothing special, I didn't even note the key (I just wanted encoded text).

Here, try this:

EnCt20b2dd06fa9604491740799a38381f0434d3f51020b2dd06fa9604491740799a3BTvN3cGhtwP U/jQ87lTACybYYl/79DXRwrGUv37k0JayPRBRHsmz/FbqcGgG/MNav01PBXmYuW7lQOETjgKhey8rcvQ cLOsB/wxUWiKNs11A1rEK6Wi2mto68hDAbw==IwEmS

Its a 45 bit key: grassrootsmotorsports

go here: https://encipher.it/

ahhhhh, got it now, thanks !

I finished watching the show:

Honestly, not much of this, or the original story when it broke, was a huge surprise to me. These thing of course have been predicted in fiction for a while (e.g. Enemy of the State). The massive passive surveillance campaign is pretty bold though.

I have to wonder if many, at least in the near future, even care that much. People seem to do a great job of sharing all sorts of personal information voluntarily these days. I have always pretty much assumed if they want to find it, they will.

The passive surveillance is interesting in concept and I can see how it COULD be used as they say, but the huge deal is: How would you know? Since all of this is behind a veil of super secret (or whatever), they could be lying to the President and he would never know (it was clearly shown in the shown that the NSA had no issue straight up lying to Congress). Who watches the Watchmen?

One thing they did not talk about was the fact that it is pretty certain even if you completely shut down the US programs the are other countries doing the same thing. Probably not as far along, but I am pretty confident Russia and China have very similar programs going on.

I think the problem is that some of us still want to believe our country is somehow better than Russia or China.

Tim Baxter wrote: I think the problem is that some of us still want to believe our country is somehow better than Russia or China.

It's funny that the US and China have both become faux democracies from opposite directions.

The US started as a representative democracy, and then two parties worked together to dominate the political landscape, and then undermined what was left by letting money equal free speech.

China started out as a communist dictatorship, then divided their "politburo" into red and blue teams that you could vote for, and then became capitalist in all but name.

Tim Baxter wrote: I think the problem is that some of us still want to believe our country is somehow better than Russia or China.

Good point. I was really more thinking of them spying on US citizens rather then their own (kind of assumed I would think). Of course the big difference here is that the US government is GIVEN (or taking) access by internet providers / telecoms etc.

And yes, China is far more (politically) like the US then many people realize or would like to admit.