can i encrypt files on my linux box
I was just wondering if it's possible to encrypt the contents in my linux laptop with GPG. If possible, can i even encrypt my password file cuz i've read once in the art of intrusion where the FBi has to ask the hacker for his password which is "100 chars long and encrypted with PGP" I'm using Ubuntu 7.04, with GPG installed , and my file system is ext3.
z3ro wrote: You can. I cant remember how. Althoguh encryption will help vs maby the cops and or other hackers, if the fbi gets your box and your hdd is still functional ur data is theirs encrytion or not.
ORLY? FBIS IS GODZ!!! So I'm assuming this means that they've solved NP-complete problems in polynomial time? Really? How's that for a conspiracy theory!
And yes, you can. I'll write an article explaining how, since it'll be more use there. I'll post a link here when I finish.
Toy: f*ck the FBI. This would fall into the jurisdiction of the NSA: anything you do serious enough to get them this pissed off at you, and willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars of computing power + electricity would be bound to hurt the USFG's infrastructure so bad it would be considered cyber terror, an attack (x)or treason. Not to mention:
-Tov- wrote: Hell, if the FBI wants to I think they can use the pc's of every person in USA (or even world) and get away with it.. :S
Right, I'm sure they can break into any computer in the world. That would explain why we haven't found dozens of heads of terror organizations who do have access to computers and the internet.
Hey, ever had the entire contents of a hard drive, a brute forcing algorithm and a pattern recognition algorithm dumped on your hard drive? I'm sure NO system admin would notice that 600 gig block of data that was transported and appeared on their system over the course of the past day or so. And I'm sure that 600gigs bandwidth isn't a big deal for most companies. No red flags or anything.
Of course, it's probably archived. We'll assume that the government is good at compression, that the disk is decently statistically redundant in it's data, and that the programs they write for comparison and cracking are small. That's still a lot of data bandwidth-wise. Not to mention the CPU would shoot through the roof.
-Tov- wrote: Maybe he means that they have access to huge amounts of calculationpower to bf it..?
Right. 1. see above, they'd have to use their own resources. 2. where the hell is all this money coming from? The congress appropriates $$$ to the FBI/NSA. And the FBI/NSA spends it on what they are supposed to. Watchdog groups wouldn't noticed tens/hundreds of billions of dollars of dollars going to some unknown project. If the FBI took it's entire fiscal appropriation and sent it all to building mega-comp 6000, they still couldn't do that. And, why would they decide on a whim to use that computer to break an encryption algorithm on Joe Shmoe's computer?
In conclusion, and to stay on topic, GPG is FBI-proof as long as you use a decent length key. However, be warned: failure to provide said key = interference with a criminal investigation = aiding and abetting a terrorist if this is an issue so big that they care this much. That = detaining indefinitely without real habeas corpus. So, go ahead and give them the damn key, 10 years and parole is better than never seeing the light of day.