Cryptic government expects clear terrorist communications
Contrary to the wishes of their voters, the Sweden has adopted a law which allows the government to eavesdrop on all communications within the country. This was achieved by pulling stunts, dramatic scenes with crying politicians, and the promise of strict controlmeasures to ensure the privacy of the population.
Of course, when everything I do in front of the computer takes a sidetrip into the National Defence Radio Establishment’s servers it’s hard to appreciate the promises of protected privacy.
So why did they pull such a stupid thing out of their asses?
Nobody knows, but it’s supposed to be for an improved defense against terrorist attacks, which is something that has never in the history of the country been recorded to occur.
Now what does this mean for the everyday computeruser such as yourself?
If you connect to a client or server located in Sweden it means all the traffic between the two of you is being analyzed by the National Defence Radio Establishment. Of course you can encrypt your traffic and thus keep what’s yours to yourself. But be aware that they do have machines running with the sole purpose of decrypting messages so that they can be analyzed. I recommend using a 1024 bit encryption to make sure you are a real pain in the ass.
Should you be forced to speak on the phone with a swede, please mention “packages” and “showtime”. Pretend you’re Usama and that you went to a school which actually teaches english. =)
Of course, real terrorists have been using encryptions for a long time, but the government doesn’t know that so it’ll be fun messing with them even though I am guaranteed never to get through customs in the U.S. (Yes, we do flag suspects as possible terrorists and as far as I know we will share the information with the yankees).
Big brother is watching you.
