Scrutable

AMS wrote: Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:49 pm

OneOffDave wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 2:27 pm The Fertiliser bomb plot chaps used an open word document on a laptop that they passed between each other in the same room and deleted each line after they had read to avoid being bugged. Obviously the rest of their security wasn't as good as they all got rolled up fairly quickly

If they were physically passing laptop around, why not just use pen and paper?

They'd type a line, pass it across, delete that line then type the next sentence and pass it back. There was never more than the one comment

A wax tablet and stylus might work or one of those plastic sheet and pointy stick "magic writing" pads is another approach. Go proper old school

discovolante wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:04 am

Dermot O'Logical wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 7:37 am So W.H.Smith are on the alert for anyone who buys a ream of A4 and asks directions to a glazier.

As a former WH Smith employee, I can confirm that we had one full day of training twice a year regarding the identification of spies.

Ah, so that's why they ask "would you like a bar of Cadbury's chocolate for £1 with your newspaper?" It's less obvious than "There are clouds over Birmingham, but no rain is forecast".

Just watched the latest 24 hours in police custody where the drug smugglers were using encrypted phones by "Encro". I admit that googling Encro I am confused, obviously it wasn't end to end encrypted as it was later hacked by the French authorities at the hosting site, using malware. At the time of the arrests the police could only get what they could off the unlocked phones before they were timed out.

The phones also had a service fee of thousands per month, which is criminal.

The phones did look to have had good endpoint security as they were internally encrypted and wiped everything if there were attempts to break into them and all other usual processes like the GPS were disabled.

Then the drug smugglers recorded everything on their dashcams.

Now that good encryption is free and open source, just how difficult is it to write and app providing good end to end encryption with effective endpoint security for an android phone?

Boustrophedon wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 11:43 am Now that good encryption is free and open source, just how difficult is it to write and app providing good end to end encryption with effective endpoint security for an android phone?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)

Dermot O'Logical wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 7:37 am George Smiley handwrote documents, one sheet of paper at a time, on a glass plate to avoid leaving impressions.

I doubt that's very effective as glass can still get very slight surface cracks not visible to the naked eye. Much more effective would be to use a thin piece of wood to support the paper and then burn it.

Millennie Al wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:53 am

Dermot O'Logical wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 7:37 am George Smiley handwrote documents, one sheet of paper at a time, on a glass plate to avoid leaving impressions.

I doubt that's very effective as glass can still get very slight surface cracks not visible to the naked eye. Much more effective would be to use a thin piece of wood to support the paper and then burn it.

Just take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Millennie Al wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:53 am

Dermot O'Logical wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 7:37 am George Smiley handwrote documents, one sheet of paper at a time, on a glass plate to avoid leaving impressions.

I doubt that's very effective as glass can still get very slight surface cracks not visible to the naked eye. Much more effective would be to use a thin piece of wood to support the paper and then burn it.

Well yes it can, but probably not from a pen nib cushioned by a sheet of paper.