ISIS using Puxings

[radiosification]

I see what you mean. I took what you were saying to mean that anything could be decrypted if the authorities were willing to give enough time and money to it. I was disagreeing with that point. What I was saying is that no budget would be large enough to brute force an AES 256 key within a timeframe that the data would still be relevant, so it is effectively secure.

Of course, if we're being pedantic about it, the only truly secure encryption technique is OTP, but other forms of encryption are effectively just as secure for most purposes. I say this because it is currently impossible to decrypt them without the key in any reasonable amount of time - ie. by the time you manage to decrypt anything, the people who it concerned (the people trying to hide the data) have probably died millions of years ago and the society they lived in probably doesn't exist anymore. The human race probably will not even exist by then.

Essentially, for any well designed and implemented encryption with a reasonable key length, you can completely rule out trying to brute force it, and the methods that will work for finding out the unencrypted message or key will probably be quite similar to the methods you would use for OTP: Hacking into devices that have the keys or the data and installing software/hardware to intercept them; forcing people to tell you; spying at either end of the encryption process (looking over someone's shoulder;listening into an encrypted phone call etc.); or any other kind of method like that.

[kr0ne]

Yep, don't worry no tinfoil hat here...

Like you suggest, most successful compromises of encryption tend to rely on circumventing the encryption process in some way. I think those that actually defeat the encryption itself tend to focus on attacking the key management system rather than the actual encryption algorithm.

An interesting piece of information that has been fairly widely reported (not sure if it originated from a Snowden leak or somewhere else) is that the NSA is purported to routinely store and archive encrypted TOR traffic that they are unable to decrypt at the current time. Similar tine frame estimates of "the end of the universe" exist for a brute force attack on that data, but I guess they must expect to be able to manage it well before then...

Of course, this may just be urban legend, but I think it illustrates the mindset and reality of encryption well whether true or not.

[BK]

Didn't seem worth starting a new thread (Militia using Baofengs) but;
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/01/28 ... s#comments

[radiosification]

$3000 AR-15s but only $30 Baofengs. People just don't know anything about radios.

[LeakyFeeder]

None of us really know what our spooks are capable of listening into....if a Govt wants summat they get it...and no radio manufacturer can say diddly cos the "national security" card is waved n thats that...

[radiosification]

Not always as much as you think. If you have your own radios with encryption on, it makes it much more difficult for the military/government to listen in. I've seen videos in war zones where American soldiers were listening for any unencrypted communications. They didn't even bother listening for encrypted, and they were just using a handheld scanner to listen.

[26WD40]

They're everywhere these days....

OK Who want a Bacon Butty

[StoatTB]

They're just showing what finger they scratch their arses with...

[pete_uk]

They're just showing what finger they scratch their arses with...

I'll refrain from commenting about goats.

They also use Hyteras as well.

[radiosification]

I'll refrain from commenting about goats.

They also use Hyteras as well.

Yeah I saw that in a documentary about ISIS which I was watching on YouTube (Hyteras not goats ). It was by vice if anyone is interested.
It is quite interesting to see how ISIS works, but also very worrying how they instil such violent messages in kids at such a young age. Anyway, better not go into politics on here.

I saw some Hytera radios in that documentary such as the PD785. I also heard that they were using analog, though not on that radio. I would assume that they use DMR on the Hytera radio otherwise it would be a bit pointless having such an expensive radio just for FM.

The sign they are making in that picture seems to be some sort of sign to show allegiance to islamic state. Just like gangs have their hand signs and the Nazis had the "Hitlergruß".