Althouse: "David Miranda was carrying password for secret files on piece of paper."

August 30, 2013

"David Miranda was carrying password for secret files on piece of paper."

Reckless.

A level of concern for security lower than what I have for my Facebook page.

18 comments:

Hagar said...: Wait and see.

Le Carre, anyone?

And another possibility: If the Congress/Parliament will just approve another 15% for our budget, so that we can hire 10% more people and give everybody a 5% raise, we can plug all those holes.; 8/30/13, 12:04 PM
Uncle Pavian said...: A low level of security, yes. But to be fair, it wasn't Miranda's data.; 8/30/13, 12:06 PM
Moose said...: What? Carrying secret files with the password on a piece of paper or all of Greewald's (and a lot of others) posturing about Miranda being "harassed" by the British authorities for no reason?

Yes, a run-on sentence.; 8/30/13, 12:12 PM
Wince said...: You'd think Miranda's first instinct would be to put it in his mouth and swallow.

Being in a relationship with... a national security reporter.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!; 8/30/13, 12:12 PM
Wince said...: ...Or hid it in his rectum.; 8/30/13, 12:15 PM
Brother J said...: "Reckless"

Certainly that too but the first word that came to mind for me was "stupid."; 8/30/13, 12:40 PM
Balfegor said...: Not great, no, but I've seen people make encrypted document productions (in lawsuits or government investigations) and then put the password right in the cover letter. This makes things easier, obviously, from a recordkeeping perspective, but it obviates the whole point of encrypting the document, which is not to keep the recipient for decrypting the files, when he loses the cover letter, but to keep random people who intercept the package from decrypting the files. There are many smart people totally unclear on the concept.

For my part, I am a terrible security risk since I have a limited number of passwords I pick and choose from (or generate my passwords in a predictable way which I am not going to write for everyone to see on the internet).

That said, more recent password systems let me use phrases, which makes it easier to create and remember secure passwords. Bitlocker on Windows, for example, allows this kind of password generation.; 8/30/13, 2:03 PM
Cedarford said...: Greenwald's butt-boy (literally) is in some serious hot water, as is Greenwald.
Because boy toy lost "plausible deniability" that the encrypted files were some personal info only - about sex acts, other things..and the Crown had no probable cause to force those passwords to be turned over.

The password allowed the Brits to see that the one encrypted file they then cracked was data stolen from the US government, with suspicion he has other data property of the British government that was shared with the Yanks - with the highest level of secret classification.

Miranda already faces 4 years, no parole on violation of the Official Secrets Act for refusing to divulge passwords for files suspected of being espionage material.
Turns out they were! So Miranda has no defense other than say that he is a simple Brazilian model, and Greenwald told him to do it.

Of course, if Greenwald is implicated, he can always flee the UK back to America. No? Or flee with his homo lover to a warm reception Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador are know to give homos??; 8/30/13, 2:13 PM
traditionalguy said...: Why believe psy ops slanders of the Leviatan's enemy that has hurt it?

Ridicule is so easy. There is a 5% chance this news release is true.; 8/30/13, 2:17 PM
Beta Rube said...: Puts the Plame over reaction in perspective.; 8/30/13, 3:07 PM
Hagar said...: Or giving them a little help in case they were having difficulty solving the encryption.; 8/30/13, 3:10 PM
Titus said...: Reckless and so incredibly hot.

Love the pants.; 8/30/13, 3:18 PM
Conserve Liberty said...: Have I become so cynical that I believe the Security aparatus of any western government would simply brute force the encryption - or use the back door they forced the algo-coder to put in - and then make up a ridiculous-on-its-face story about a piece of paper to satisfy the Court?

Yes, I have.; 8/30/13, 3:27 PM
Conserve Liberty said...: Have I become so cynical that I believe the Security aparatus of any western government would simply brute force the encryption - or use the back door they forced the algo-coder to put in - and then make up a ridiculous-on-its-face story about a piece of paper to satisfy the Court?

Yes, I have.; 8/30/13, 3:28 PM
Peter said...: But it doesn't say if he was required to use a password at least 314 characters long containing at least 4 different punctuation marks and 3 digits- and that it must be changed every seven days to something that he's never used before and ...

Although he could just put the impossible-to-remember password on another device, in a file protected by a (presumably lower security) password he could remember.

So, yes, what he did was stupid. BUT sometimes password security requirements all but encourage such stupid behaviors.; 8/30/13, 3:36 PM
Philip Ngai said...: Do you guys never ever forget a password? I thought that was also a risk for most people. If you follow the policy of having separate passwords for every system, the chance of forgetting one password seems pretty high. If you use the same password everywhere, that's a different security risk and one that I think is worse.; 8/30/13, 4:44 PM
Sam L. said...: Hey! He's Glenn Greenwald's partner. He's gonna be smart?; 8/30/13, 6:12 PM
SteveR said...: That was well planned!; 8/30/13, 6:12 PM