I guess this was predictable:
NZ fear over secret communication following Paris attacks
The Government and security experts say they are concerned about the ease with which the Paris attackers were able to communicate without being detected.
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Changes in technology, such as new encrypted message systems, is making it increasingly easy to speak without alerting authorities.
Encryption is the latest bugbear of the security state. Banning it is a bad idea, but that’s a post for another time. In any case, encryption wasn’t the issue with the Paris attacks:
Paris attacks: John Key says undetectable communication is increasing
Undetectable communication is closer to the truth.
The amount of “dark communications” which New Zealand spy agencies are unable to intercept is increasing, Prime Minister John Key says.
Mr Key made the comments in response to reports that French intelligence did not pick up any communications which foreshadowed the massive, co-ordinated terror attacks in Paris on Friday night.
More of that in the footnote below.
New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) are now under review. Mr Key was asked whether the review could lead to changes which addressed technological advances.
He said the issue was not the spy agencies’ capacity, because the legislation which governed the SIS and GCSB was already “reasonably broad”.
Isn’t that an interesting comment – Key effectively acknowledging that our spy agencies can already take anything they want.
“The issue is that this technology is very difficult to break into, essentially. So you are seeing people doing things that are a lot more sophisticated than in the past.”
Off on the wrong track again. The communications used in the case of the Paris attacks were as sophisticated as – a PS4:
Paris terrorists suspected of using PlayStation 4 to communicate
It’s being suggested that the communication tool of choice was the PlayStation 4. While that may seem like a surprising choice, from a terrorist’s point of view it’s one of the safer options. The authorities have been able to monitor standard communication channels (land lines, cell phones, email, Internet browsing) easily for years, but the IP-based voice communication offered on the PS4 is much more difficult to listen in on, as is any peer-to-peer systems used.
No encryption. No deep web / dark net buzzwords, a PS4. (Update: Disputed.)
The problem of monitoring communication on games consoles gets worse when you consider how many games have communication methods built-in. You can voice chat, message each other, or even write temporary messages on walls in a game like Call of Duty. How do you even begin to track such a wide variety of communications methods split across tens or even hundreds of different games?
That’s before you even get in to Steganography and associated methods. Trying to monitor all the possibilities would be like trying to perform significantly time consuming analysis of every frame of every video uploaded to YouTube.
So we’re going to have an ill informed debate about effective surveillance (which is impossible) and encryption (which is necessary). The tools that governments want won’t address the communication channels that smart terrorists are actually using. They can be used very effectively to spy on you and me though.
Footnote
Effective surveillance is mathematically impossible. The Paris attacks are a case in point:
Iraq Says It Warned France of ‘Imminent’ Attacks
The Associated Press is reporting that one day before the Paris attacks, Iraqi intelligence officials warned France and other anti-ISIS coalition allies that they should expect “imminent” assaults by the militant group. According to those intelligence officials, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi had ordered attacks “through bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days.”
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In response, a French security official pointed out to the AP that they receive warnings like this “every day.”
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