I thought this might be worth a repost as PR is now defunct, with a couple of edits
Recent events (aka partial Doxxing) has highlighted how little some of us understand online threats, so I thought a ‘brief’ primer might be useful.
This is more focused on the political implications as it is massively impacted by the laws we pass, such as how long police are allowed to keep ANPR (Police Automatic Number Plate Recognition) data. You vote for or allow things without understanding the implications.
So first some definitions and yes I will get the AI and Quantum parts but you have to understand the background first. Also for those of you that don’t know my professional background is in very large database environments ranging from near real time interaction to data mining. It also includes ANPR experience (part of the real time experience). So I do have direct professional knowledge of some of this as opposed to being an observing amateur.
Metadata analysis and Data Aggregation
Many examples of this but in general I’m referring to the collection of many data points from which you can infer other seemingly unexpected items. An example of this is finding where you live, why data privacy is important and why corporations and police fight such privacy to the death.
I am simplifying this but not by much, there are uncertainties but as more data comes in the errors diminish.
Note they love to talk about anonymising data, so it’s safe. They know they can bypass it
So in this example the entity doesn’t know where you live or who you are but …
They can only get hold of anonymised (you are sold the line this makes it ok) credit card receipts, so they suck those up. Now they know Person A buys most of their stuff, the locations and frequency will give a general location of where A lives because people will usually go to the same grocery store and it is in the area they live.
Now they get anonymised cell tower data. This gives them a rough location for the cell phone and where/when it moves. Add these two together and you tie a cell phone to a credit card.
Now many purchases are online, so now you tie a credit card and/or cell phone to an IP. And now you have an address, probably a name.
Add in police ANPR data which police cars are getting a a common feature, reading every plate they see and recording it (not just fixed cameras like I used to deal with). This then creates (over time) a database of everywhere this car goes. Now you can with a little work figure out where someone works, lives, goes for recreation, shops etc. So connect the ‘shops’ with the previous analysis and you have a pretty detailed view of your life.
This analysis is complex but companies and police have been doing it for years. Data is the driver, more data means better intel.
AI
AI now makes analyzing this data possible at scale. Back when I was involved we called it data mining and people did it, this meant it was targeted. Police would only use it on targeted individuals.
AI opens up the door for mass surveillance, you can do this at scale and they are doing it. Allowing companies, the police and government to keep this data without restriction impact you.
Quantum Nightmare
Remember data drives this, the more data you have the more accurate to analyse. A common term is ‘Attack Surface’. I work to minimize mine even if it has a limited effect.
Many here will have heard of the coming Quantum security apocalypse. The "quantum apocalypse" (or Q-Day) is the theoretical moment when advanced quantum computers will be able to instantly break the standard math used to secure the internet. Experts estimate this threshold will be crossed as early as 2029. This would make private bank transfers, digital signatures, and personal data vulnerable overnight.
Now the major players like Google are working on Quantum resistant encryption, so lets assume for now they are successful, job done right ? Back to business as usual ? Not quite even given this assumption.
Good and bad actors have been and are still vacuuming up vast quantities for encrypted data, databases, real-time network traffic. Right now they can’t use it.
Come Q-Day, all of that data gets decrypted and not only massively increases the aggregations but they now contain data previously thought safely encrypted.
Sleep well my friends
Recent events (aka partial Doxxing) has highlighted how little some of us understand online threats, so I thought a ‘brief’ primer might be useful.
This is more focused on the political implications as it is massively impacted by the laws we pass, such as how long police are allowed to keep ANPR (Police Automatic Number Plate Recognition) data. You vote for or allow things without understanding the implications.
So first some definitions and yes I will get the AI and Quantum parts but you have to understand the background first. Also for those of you that don’t know my professional background is in very large database environments ranging from near real time interaction to data mining. It also includes ANPR experience (part of the real time experience). So I do have direct professional knowledge of some of this as opposed to being an observing amateur.
Metadata analysis and Data Aggregation
Many examples of this but in general I’m referring to the collection of many data points from which you can infer other seemingly unexpected items. An example of this is finding where you live, why data privacy is important and why corporations and police fight such privacy to the death.
I am simplifying this but not by much, there are uncertainties but as more data comes in the errors diminish.
Note they love to talk about anonymising data, so it’s safe. They know they can bypass it
So in this example the entity doesn’t know where you live or who you are but …
They can only get hold of anonymised (you are sold the line this makes it ok) credit card receipts, so they suck those up. Now they know Person A buys most of their stuff, the locations and frequency will give a general location of where A lives because people will usually go to the same grocery store and it is in the area they live.
Now they get anonymised cell tower data. This gives them a rough location for the cell phone and where/when it moves. Add these two together and you tie a cell phone to a credit card.
Now many purchases are online, so now you tie a credit card and/or cell phone to an IP. And now you have an address, probably a name.
Add in police ANPR data which police cars are getting a a common feature, reading every plate they see and recording it (not just fixed cameras like I used to deal with). This then creates (over time) a database of everywhere this car goes. Now you can with a little work figure out where someone works, lives, goes for recreation, shops etc. So connect the ‘shops’ with the previous analysis and you have a pretty detailed view of your life.
This analysis is complex but companies and police have been doing it for years. Data is the driver, more data means better intel.
AI
AI now makes analyzing this data possible at scale. Back when I was involved we called it data mining and people did it, this meant it was targeted. Police would only use it on targeted individuals.
AI opens up the door for mass surveillance, you can do this at scale and they are doing it. Allowing companies, the police and government to keep this data without restriction impact you.
Quantum Nightmare
Remember data drives this, the more data you have the more accurate to analyse. A common term is ‘Attack Surface’. I work to minimize mine even if it has a limited effect.
Many here will have heard of the coming Quantum security apocalypse. The "quantum apocalypse" (or Q-Day) is the theoretical moment when advanced quantum computers will be able to instantly break the standard math used to secure the internet. Experts estimate this threshold will be crossed as early as 2029. This would make private bank transfers, digital signatures, and personal data vulnerable overnight.
Now the major players like Google are working on Quantum resistant encryption, so lets assume for now they are successful, job done right ? Back to business as usual ? Not quite even given this assumption.
Good and bad actors have been and are still vacuuming up vast quantities for encrypted data, databases, real-time network traffic. Right now they can’t use it.
Come Q-Day, all of that data gets decrypted and not only massively increases the aggregations but they now contain data previously thought safely encrypted.
Sleep well my friends
