Comments on: NSA Releases ‘Security Enhanced Android’, Offering Government Level Protection For Your Device

By: Kurtis Whittington

Kurtis Whittington — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:53:00 +0000

I giggled when I heard them reference Carnivore in “SwordFish”. The talk of Carnivore was around loooong before that movie, even with that name. I heard about back it being set up back when I was dialing into BBSs at 2400 and then 9600 and higher. Kipping around on FidoNet and early USEnet newsgroups. Carnivore has been such an urban legend for such a long time that nobody takes it truly seriously anymore. The sheer volume it would have to contend with now-a-days would be so staggering that not even massive server farms and super computers could truly deal with it, let alone human verification to prevent false positives.

By: TC Infantino

TC Infantino — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:49:00 +0000

I do agree that taking security seriously is a good thing. I know all about crypto and security, it was my career while I was in the USAF. I believe the name Carnivore came from that movie Swordfish, which was a great movie for many reasons, though I doubt many people really believed that reference was to a real program. It is just a movie after all.

By: Kurtis Whittington

Kurtis Whittington — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:35:00 +0000

Ahhh, the old “Carnivore” thing, eh? I still see people with sigs that say things like “Bomb Gun Assaination Plot Hack Destruction… Hi Carnivore!” to this day. The good thing is theories about Carnivore spurred a lot of people to start taking crypto and security seriously. Which is a good thing by itself.

By: Kurtis Whittington

Kurtis Whittington — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:32:00 +0000

Ummm, no. This is not an add-on to your every day Android phone. This is deeeeeep-down changes to how the OS runs in order to raise security by a very large amount. It does cost more processing power and incur more lag as a result. If you wanted to use such code, you would have to get a copy from the repository and then work to fit it in with your specific model of phone, and then compile it yourself (or find a Dev that will do so, etc).

You aren’t going to find this in Android market. If you think so, then this kind of stuff is _REALLY_ not for you.

By: not as much a dork as most

not as much a dork as most — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:18:00 +0000

No aid? I guess you never drive on a road, walk on a sidewalk, listen to radio, use the Internet…. oh wait

By: not as much a dork as most

not as much a dork as most — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:09:00 +0000

CarrierIQ is compiled code AND placed/hidden by vendors into a somewhat locked-down device, duh. Fear Verizon, AT&T, etc….

By: no in particular

no in particular — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:02:00 +0000

Obviously no. Its fully inspectable source code, not compiled code…. not like Windoze or Mac or iOS or ….. where backdoors / vulnerabilities can placed and hidden.

By: Granted

Granted — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:30:00 +0000

Which is just one minor reason I don’t use any social networking sites or any iterations of them.

By: Scofield1

Scofield1 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:35:00 +0000

Think this through. Why does the NSA care about your browsing or what is on your phone. Sorry Lex Luthor, they don’t care very much about you.

By: point.blank

point.blank — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:34:00 +0000

They do all that and still couldn’t prevent the catastrophe that took place that day.

By: point.blank

point.blank — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:30:00 +0000

Why not?

See: Homeland Security watches Twitter, social media

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Won’t happen. Stop being lazy.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Yea because is totally related to the NDAA /s

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:45:00 +0000

And you can prove that without a doubt? No? Didn’t think so.

By: James Kirk

James Kirk — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:28:00 +0000

where do i download this? is it in the market?