[gentoo-user] Internet security.

[Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com>]

Someone found this and sent it to me. 

http://news.yahoo.com/internet-experts-want-security-revamp-nsa-revelations-020838711--sector.html


I'm not to concerned about the political aspect of this but do have to
wonder what this means when we use sites that are supposed to be secure
and use HTTPS.  From reading that, it seems that even URLs with HTTPS
are not secure.  Is it reasonable to expect that even connections
between say me and my bank are not really secure? 

Also, it seems there are people that want to work on fixing this and
leave out any Government workers.  Given my understanding of this, that
could be a very wise move.  From that article, I gather that the tools
used were compromised before it was even finished.  Is there enough
support, enough geeks and nerds basically, to do this sort of work
independently?  I suspect there are enough Linux geeks out there to
handle this and then figure out how to make it work on other OSs.  I use
the words geek and nerd in a complimentary way.  I consider myself a bit
of a geek as well.  :-D

One of many reasons I use Linux is security.  I always felt pretty
secure but if that article is accurate, then the OS really doesn't
matter much when just reaching out and grabbing data between two puters
over the internet.  I may be secure at my keyboard but once it hits the
modem and leaves, it can be grabbed and read if they want to even when
using HTTPS.  Right?

This is not Gentoo specific but as most know, Gentoo is all I use
anyway.  I don't know of any other place to ask that I subscribe too.  I
figure I would get a "no comment" out of the Government types.  ROFL 
Plus, there are some folks on here that know a LOT about this sort of
stuff too. 

Again, I don't want a lot of political stuff on this but more of the
technical side of, is that article accurate, can it be fixed and can we
be secure regardless of OS.  It seems to me that when you break HTTPS,
you got it beat already.

Am I right on this, wrong or somewhere in the middle?

Dale

:-)  :-) 

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!