Germany ‘may revert to typewriters’ in wake of NSA spying revelations

[DonViejo]

Source: The Guardian

German politicians are considering a return to manual typewriters for sensitive documents in the wake of the US surveillance scandal.

The head of the Bundestag’s parliamentary enquiry into NSA activity in Germany said in an interview with the Morgenmagazin TV programme that he and his colleagues were seriously thinking of ditching email completely.

Asked “Are you considering typewriters” by the interviewer on Monday night, the Christian Democrat politican Patrick Sensburg said: “As a matter of fact, we have – and not electronic models either”. “Really?”, the surprised interviewer checked. “Yes, no joke”, Sensburg responded.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/15/germany-may-revert-to-typewriters-in-wake-of-nsa-spying-revelations/

[Xipe Totec]

1. Please proceed...

Keyboard Acoustic Emanations

We show that PC keyboards, notebook keyboards, telephone and ATM pads are vulnerable to attacks based on differentiating the sound emanated by different keys. Our attack employs a neural network to recognize the key being pressed. We also investigate why different keys produce different sounds and provide hints for the design of homophonic keyboards that would be resistant to this type of attack.

http://rakesh.agrawal-family.com/papers/ssp04kba.pdf

[cstanleytech]

5. They would have to be able to actually listen in though

and if they cant then they would be sol as far as using that method goes.

[Xipe Totec]

9. There are so many ways....

Laser microphones is just one.



And that's just the stuff we know about.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. Did you know that was field tested at Disneyland?

Walt Disney worked with the government to perfect and harden surveillance devices for real world applications. Mini cams and wireless microphones are still all over the place including fiber optic cameras.

In Club 33 there are microphones at each table recording everything said and Walt used to talk to his guests through an anamatronic moose head over the fireplace. (Which is what inspired the Wallyworld moose in National Lampoon's Vacation.)

[MannyGoldstein]

37. Music and window vibrators can make that challenging

Facilities in the US that are working on very-secret stuff use countermeasures. Of course, the might be implemented as poorly as the NSA's security against having zillions of files swiped by Snowden.

[Xipe Totec]

46. Exactly right

Human intelligence beats technology every time.

[hatrack]

71. Maybe just play "The Typewriter" by Leroy Anderson on a loop

You'd probably drive a few clerks into myoclonic seizures, but who knows, might be an effective countermeasure.

[cstanleytech]

61. If its a secure building though they probably are setup with the countermeasures for lasers

though.

[Xipe Totec]

63. If they went that far, why do they need to use Selectric typewriters?

It seems to me a panic reaction. Not carefully though out.

And more intended for PR than effective countermeasures.

Actual countermeasures are not going to be spelled out.

That would be stupid.

[cstanleytech]

69. Well you cant hack into an old manual typewriter for one.

I do agree though it sounds more like a PR stunt to show their people that they are angry.

[Xipe Totec]

70. That's the thing - You CAN hack into an old manual typewriter.

Probably developed before modern hacking of electronic equipment was conceived.

[cvoogt]

73. I built one

back in high school. Not too hard

[WinkyDink]

20. Are you unfamiliar with THIS type of typewriter?

[Xipe Totec]

21. Not that particular brand, no.

Is there anything special about it?

I used an Underwood in high school, by the way.

And a bamboo slide rule.

[WinkyDink]

22. Yes---It wasn't part of the study and is undoubtedly what the Germans are referring to:

"We explored acoustic emanations of keyboard-like input
devices to recognize the content being typed. After providing
a detailed description of the basic attack on a PC
keyboard, we successfully applied this attack to other types
of push button input devices, such as notebook keyboards,
telephone pads, and ATM pads."

IOW: back to the early 1960's. You answered your own question with "Underwood."

P.S. I didn't use a slide-rule; just the trig tables in the back of the book.

[Xipe Totec]

24. Mechanical typewriters are the easiest to interpret acoustically.

Far, far easier than electromechanical or electric typewriters.

[billhicks76]

32. Next Stop Voting Machines

If you think they aren't hacked then you're naive.

[MannyGoldstein]

38. Does each unit need to be characterized?

Or do all of a certain model have the same signature?

Why are they easier?

[Xipe Totec]

45. It depends on the technique

There are self training techniques based on keystroke clustering that would learn as they go and would not need to have each individual typewriter characterized a priori.

Mechanical typewriters are easier because the mechanical characteristics of each key are more distinct based on the travel time of the keys, the length of the hammers, and the spring tension of each individual key. Electronic keyboards on the other hand have basically the same mechanism, so you have to rely more on the timing based on hand mechanics, and the echo of the keys on the keyboard itself (like a sounding board with different pitches based on where you strike).

Self learning techniques rely on letter frequencies as well as markov models to map key clusters to individual letters.

[MannyGoldstein]

53. I get the feeling that you're scary-smart

Just a hunch.

[Xipe Totec]

54. Let's just say I've been around a while

[MannyGoldstein]

55. Electrical Engineer?

Physicist?

Or software?

(No need to answer if you want privacy.)

I was trained as an Electrical Engineer, don't do much of it these days.

[Xipe Totec]

56. It's complicated

Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Math, Engineering and CS are involved to different degrees and levels.

I just love knowledge.

[MannyGoldstein]

57. An omnididact

Cool

[Xipe Totec]

60. I like that better than rocket scientist

[LiberalFighter]

40. I would agree.

The keys have specific characteristics that develop over time. Some stick more than others. They also require more effort.

[Xipe Totec]

64. The more personality they have, the less secure they are.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Wanna buy some carbon paper ?

Long story that concerning multiple cases of fraud in the UK early 1970's.

[lonestarnot]

3. Me too!

[James48]

4. Secret writing device

It's called a PENCIL.

[valerief]

6. Oh, yeah? Well, USA USA USA will do that one better. We'll use Etch-A-Sketches.

For real. We'll use Etch-A-Sketches and put them on a table in a special room and if anyone comes into that room, the tables will shake and the Etch-A-Sketches will pound sand. Or whatever it is they do when the image goes away. Or powerful USA magnets on the door to the special room will get close enough to the Etch-A-Sketch memos to magnetiscramble them.

How's that, Herr Germany? Huh? Try and beat that, why doncha.

USA USA USA! Woot woot woot woot!

[DinahMoeHum]

10. Better yet, use a "Magic Slate"!!

[valerief]

28. Oh, my! Much better! You must be Canadian to come up with something better. nt

[MannyGoldstein]

39. So that's why Bush used one of those all the time

I knew there had to be a good explanation.

[IDemo]

42. He spent hours trying to figure out how to turn it on.

[jakeXT]

18. That's a good way to get rid of the cleaner problem, Steve Jobs should've done it

The article details the secrecy surrounding the iPhone and how Jobs demanded much from Christie to perfect the iconic device’s software, including making bi-weekly presentations to the CEO in a highly secure windowless room—where cleaners weren’t even allowed entry.
http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/apple-engineer-iphone-birth/

[rhett o rick]

7. The joke is on them. The technology is available to listen to what you keyboard via your smart

phone if it's close to the keyboard.

[yurbud]

13. and a drone can look in the window and translate your finger movements.

[JVS]

8. Didn't the Russians do this earlier this year?

[jakeXT]

12. Maybe Putin explained it again

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Never occured to them to just NOT HAVE WEB ACCESS.

[yurbud]

14. how about "darknet"?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. Only if there's porn on it.

[yurbud]

41. Maybe Germans could make up a porn code

[Spitfire of ATJ]

43. Let's hope South Park isn't an indicator.

[jakeXT]

16. It could also be a manipulated USB hardware or a monitor cable

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-941262.html

[Spitfire of ATJ]

26. The pilot of "The Lone Gunmen" had the CPU itself to the work.

[jakeXT]

31. I remember the Octium, in real life there are rumors about Intel chips with 3g capability, in case

your computer gets stolen

Intel actually embedded the 3G radio chip in order to enable its Anti Theft 3.0 technology. And since that technology is found on every Core i3/i5/i7 CPU after Sandy Bridge, that means a lot of CPUs, not just new vPro, might have a secret 3G connection nobody knew about until now.

Sadly, Jim Stone doesn't actually provide any evidence for this, so we can either take him at his word or not think about any of this, seeing as how we can't really do anything about it even if it's true. On the one hand, it might all be fake.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Secret-3G-Radio-in-Every-Intel-vPro-CPU-Could-Steal-Your-Ideas-at-Any-Time-385194.shtml

Among the new performance capabilities are improved integrated graphics, faster processing and better security and trust features designed to keep the computing environment more secure.

With Intel anti-theft technology built into Sandy Bridge, Allen said users can set it up so that if their laptop gets lost or stolen, it can be shut down remotely. The microprocessor also comes with enhanced recovery and patching capabilities.

Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture can also be used to help businesses create smarter data centres, Allen said. In Canada, this is especially meaningful for small businesses because they’re typically more aggressive at utilizing cloud services than larger organizations are, he added.

http://www.computerdealernews.com/news/intels-sandy-bridge-will-debut-at-ces/18660

[Owl]

68. Only $20,000 apiece.

[srican69]

17. Maybe they need relaunch the dreaded enigma machines that they used in WWII

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/topics/enigma
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine

[jmowreader]

30. We know exactly how to break an Enigma machine...

A gentleman named Alan Turing figured this out in the 1940s, but today it would be easier to just use a very fast PC and brute-force the stream open.

[Diclotican]

34. jmowreader

jmowreader

To be fair - it was the polish intelligence agency in pre-war Poland who broke the code of the Enigma code machine first - it was right before WW2 that the polish intelligence agency (the military) managed to broke the code by being able to get a hand on one of the machines - and also managed when Germany attacked Poland in 1939 - to give it to the british - by sending it to Sweden - then to Denmark - and then by boat to UK, where the british intelligence tried it best to break the codes the germans was using - at first with no luck - but in the end they managed to crack more and more of the codes the germans used - and under the Battle of Britain - it was one of the tools the RAF had under their belt when it came to intercept Luftwaffe.... The new invention RADAR - was also a way to get a grasp of where they was....

But it is indeed true that a gentleman named Alan Turing was the one who got the honor of being able to crack the code machine - the germans was somewhat surprised by the end of the war - that the allied had cracked the code and was able to read some of the messages from it... Mostly because Abwer was sure Enigma could not be cracked... Their best expert had not been able to do it - so why should anyone else do it...

Diclotican

[jmowreader]

44. Turing was the one who broke the Navy's machine

I knew the Poles broke out the three-rotor Enigma, the history of the ULTRA program has filled shelves of books and they're still not talking about some of it. The German Navy used a different machine - it had four rotors that were wired differently than the three-rotor army machines, and the cipher start the Navy used was more complex - and only Turing bothered to look at it.

[srican69]

51. I knew that ... read all about it in the fascinating book by Simon Singh ( Code Book )

But honestly it is not very difficult putting a very tight encryption to secure communications these days ....Even the fastest computers will take a million years to break a public key encryption through brute force if the prime numbers used for encryption are of the order of 10^100.

My guess is that German did not expect to spied upon and did not bother encypting their message.

[nashville_brook]

19. that can only mean one thing: we've become the Cylons

[closeupready]

25. They've got the brains, money, and expertise to innovate their own

communication methods, don't they?

[littlemissmartypants]

27. Handwriting in cursive may be enough.

Nobody can read it anymore so it's essentially like writing in code.

Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp

[Ghost Dog]

58. Right.

It's the only way I find to do any creative writing these days.

[tclambert]

29. You know manual typewriters don't have spell-check.

Of course, in German, everything's phonetic. English got lots of its words from the French, whose spelling bees result in half the contestants going insane.

[Diclotican]

35. tclambert

tclambert

Well, technical speaking it is Norman-french and latin - not just franch.... As Wilhelm the bastard - or the Conquer he are more known as - was duke of Normandy - and was not able to speak a single word of english... And have to be honest no interest in learning it either....

Diclotican

[pothos]

33. people are mocking this ITT

but i'm glad the germans are taking NSA spying seriously. very few in this country do.

[Blue_Tires]

49. The outrage is also a nice, convenient way to deflect

any public attention to what the BND has been up to lately, or questions as to why their intelligence employees have been so quick to sell the goods to the U.S., Russia and god knows who else...

If the BND was *really* considering this, then they would NOT be telling the media about it...

[dembotoz]

36. i have a lovely old portable adler typeritter from the late 60's i could sell to them for a price

its even german i think

[treestar]

47. We're still going to spy on them

And make them totally transparent. They aren't starting another world war. If there's a hint of feelings of racial superiority again, they aren't going to get very far ever again.

[ret5hd]

52. Uhhhmmm...don't you think we could just read their newspapers and watch their tv to find out that?

[treestar]

59. Yes, and I hope we do

And get any ideas of whether the leadership intends to use those sentiments to drum anything up or not.

You'd think only our government is evil and interfering in other counties. Even if we are, Germany has certainly proven itself to be aggressor and not victim when it comes to attempting to conquer other countries.

[blkmusclmachine]

48. And carrier pigeons.

[DeSwiss]

66. Ahhh. Like this?

[jakeXT]

74. Beware of the anti-pigeon force

Falcons managed to capture two prisoners of war
The MI5 report notes Britain's new anti-pigeon force would patrol for two hours at a time over the islands off the Cornish coast.

It says: "This was a great success. The falcon flying high above the Scillies could watch not only a part of one island, but the whole group, and any pigeon flying over them would be attacked."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/01/99/wartime_spies/263333.stm

[Fearless]

50. That's fine.

It seems like a perfectly natural reaction to the realization that they have no privacy thanks to the NSA.

[DeSwiss]

62. To further disguise the typewriter's actual use....

...they are issuing all German Intelligence Officers with a Brother ''Candy Pink'' Deluxe model to be kept in their daughter's room (recruited where required) to throw off US spies.



K&R

[Monk06]

65. *

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iPbrDXQojEQ/UnPS07JWHyI/AAAAAAAAIXk/aogs8E-TMIA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-01+at+12.11.48+PM.png

[DeSwiss]

67. !

[Helen Borg]

72. Ahah, like in Battlestar Galactica!

Anyone remember that?

[LiberalElite]

75. Then the NSA can read the ribbons. nt

[RKP5637]

76. Time for the return of the Enigma machine!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine