asciilifeform: and then there's the winblows-specific crap, which i regard as uninteresting:
asciilifeform: i've tried this personally - it works. (you need a drive for which either docs or some reverse-engineerable flash diddler from the factory are available.)☟︎
asciilifeform: usb keys have been penetrated before << this refers to various experiments where you re-flash the microcontroller inside a usb drive, to do various useful things.
asciilifeform: whether this has anything to do with practical security is a puzzle for students of u.s. bureaucracy.
asciilifeform: now, these gadgets are blessed by a priest, sprinkled with holy water before deployment, etc.
asciilifeform: (trivial example: anything that enciphers/deciphers)
asciilifeform: but this is not mandatory - there are plenty of gadgets with 'red' and 'black' connectors on one panel
asciilifeform: everyone's seen the photos of the general sitting next to two keyboards, two monitors, etc.
asciilifeform: it is mainly about separating wiring for 'red' (plaintext that must not leave) and 'black' ciphertext that can go outside the walls
asciilifeform: handbook that describes design of airgapped systems (the red/black system design philosophy) << read the crap. red/black has nothing to do with airgaps, for the most part.
asciilifeform: i'll take the liberty of translating the russian expression for these - 'wonderwaffles'
asciilifeform: anyone who had the misfortune of attending u.s. schools is in for a little mindfuck - the evidence that sk (at the behest of its puppeteer across the ocean) started the korean war is, imho, convincing.
asciilifeform: personally i've no evidence in favour or against the 'they've got the pill and are sitting on it' hypothesis
asciilifeform: what, if anything, they have to show for it, is another matter
asciilifeform: these people claim (not entirely implausible) to be the largest employer of math phd types in the usa
asciilifeform: cads: likewise no leaks from the math farms.
asciilifeform: because you can only really use it once.
asciilifeform: it's a pill that would be kept in reserve for some unspecified 'dire times' that never come - as nukes are
asciilifeform: see winston churchill and the demolition of coventry.
asciilifeform: the interesting thing is that nsa-as-we-know-it, but with a pill against modern crypto hidden in an 'indiana jones'-style vault, would scarcely be distinguishable from what we can now see
asciilifeform: phone should be regarded as something like plaintext email.
asciilifeform: cads: are you familiar with the 'two NSAs' hypothesis?
asciilifeform: just so people couldn't use it as a generic magstripe reader.
asciilifeform: i set the 'bozo bit' on 'square' when they caved in to the FUD and replaced their purely-analogue card reader with an elaborate crypto turd
asciilifeform: but, for some reason, they are all very far away.
asciilifeform: plenty of people know how to program.
asciilifeform: aside from 'have useful idea, mp might invite you as co-author'
asciilifeform: how difficult is it to get listed on mpex... kakobrekla asciilifeform etc could comment on it << i still have no idea what to say to hypothetical random people who want to be listed.
asciilifeform: damn i leave for one day to do meatspace crap and miss all the fun.
