FBI wants XenForo to have a backdoor

[Adam Howard]

exactly..lol

Some will read between the lines and draw their own conclusions though

Such as yourself, who seems to be very pro government.

Draw this will you....

Today, as it stands now... Without this new law....

Question: How does The FBI currently obtain information?

Answer: They obtain a warrant and ask X site or company to hand over Y information.

So why do they need a hidden backdoor for this now?

 

[ManagerJosh]

Let's take a step back and make a few premises.

Premise:

• Let's assume this becomes law
• Let's also assume the law is implemented unchallenged and that certain backdoors are implemented to aid in wiretapping.
• Let's also assume that search warrants are still mandated

My problem with the three, and being the information assurance/cybersecurity guy, is that particular backdoor can be used by both the good guys and the bad guys.
It's a lot of risk we're exposing our organizations and we're potentially possibly allowing for data leakage to occur. It potentially becomes an attack vector.
Let's hypothetically say there's been a break in, and the point of entry leveraged (not completely utilized, just leveraged) part of this FBI backdoor.

• Who pays for the damages and losses related to our information?
• Who pays for issuing out notices to people about a potential data breach? (California, think SB-1386)
• Who pays to bring in incident response folks like myself to assess the situation and damage?
• Who pays to bring in people like myself to do electronic discovery to collect and preserve evidence for counsel after you are a target of a lawsuit?

The FBI definitely won't be paying. You will.

 

[MagnusB]

What America does online.... Others surely do follow (and often).

No, this is not true. Some do, but far from all, but problem is that once you are affiliated with an American business somehow, you can easily be affected by such legislation. This is actually something I considered before purchasing hosting and a .com, the fact that I would suddenly be exposed to foreign law. Often it can seem that American law is adopted over several countries, but this is often just a result of it becoming a defacto standard due to the historical importance of the american market. This is also the reason why you are seeing corporations adopting to Chinese law, the market is too important to ignore.

 

[Adam Howard]

No, this is not true. Some do, but far from all, but problem is that once you are affiliated with an American business somehow, you can easily be affected by such legislation. This is actually something I considered before purchasing hosting and a .com, the fact that I would suddenly be exposed to foreign law. Often it can seem that American law is adopted over several countries, but this is often just a result of it becoming a defacto standard due to the historical importance of the american market. This is also the reason why you are seeing corporations adopting to Chinese law, the market is too important to ignore.

The ironic thing is people and companies are f**king over themselves.

Assume for a moment we did ignore them.

The world at large is to big for them to ignore and in order for them to join in, they would be forced to adapt. This way of thinking can apply for any country on earth.

 

[dtmcl]

I refuse to let anybody have unfiltered access to my users data, I will happily spend hundreds of dollars shifting my websites and domains from pillar to post to protect my users from foreign law. The amount of censorship and anti-privacy laws going through America right now it is only a matter of time before one is approved, So I am preparing for the worst.

 

[dutchbb]

Fits perfectly in Obama's plans to turn the US in a fascist police state. Just look at what NSA has become, look at TSA, look at the additional powers govt has given itself in recent years... everything is being reformed for total control. They know when TSHTF complete control is required to keep their power over the people. Freedom is gradually eroding away, one day people are going to wake up and not recognize their country. Or maybe by then most will be used to it. It's sad to see it go this way but that's what happens when empires slowly come to an end. Think I'm overreacting? Just read the laws yourself, research what they're doing, prepare to be shocked when you see what the sheeple choose to ignore.

 

[DRE]

So The FBI is trying to pass a law (when did they have such rights to do so?) that would make it a mandatory requirement for any social networking site or software (forums count as social networking) to have an unrestricted, unlimited, and warrant free backdoor.

This includes everyone here.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57428067-83/fbi-we-need-wiretap-ready-web-sites-now/

The requirements apply only if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded, according to a second industry representative briefed on it.


^^^I'm safe.

I stay deleting members with zero posts.

 

[steven s]

Here we go again.
Bringing in politics.
So only cnet has this story?
Seems fishy to me.
cnet posts a story and it goes viral.
Google Declan McCullagh. I think there is more to the story.
I've read several of his articles. He might as well be writing for Fox.

 

[Adam Howard]

The requirements apply only if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded, according to a second industry representative briefed on it.


^^^I'm safe.

I stay deleting members with zero posts.

If you read everything it also applies to web apps (applications) which allow communication. As XenForo produces a product which clearly does target a wide range of communities, that of course allow communication; they would be required to impute this into the core.

 

[Poltergeist]

FBI = US
xenForo = UK

The FBI would have a hard time making a company from another country add a back door to their software. The best they could hope to do is try to make it illegal to use the software in the US, and I doubt that it would be worth their time. And sense its easy enough to have a site hosted in another country the law is useless before its even passed.

 

[Adam Howard]

FBI = US
xenForo = UK

The FBI would have a hard time making a company from another country add a back door to their software. The best they could hope to do is try to make it illegal to use the software in the US, and I doubt that it would be worth their time. And sense its easy enough to have a site hosted in another country the law is useless before its even passed.

XenForo and / or its owners currently have locations within The USA and so would be subject to its law.

If this was not so, they could simply ignore Internet Brands Inc and their wrongful lawsuit

 

[mrGTB]

You sure about that one? Kier, Ashley and Mike all live in the UK and XenForo is a UK registered company. I don't see how your getting US coming into things with XenForo, apart from fact US people buy it. As for the US lawsuit, isn't that based on the fact Kier has been accused of taking things while visiting their main offices based on US soil, hence that being dealt with there. And not XenForo is a US company or anything.

Could be wrong, I've not followed the court case in detail like most?

Maybe if US people buy XenForo and host it in the US they could be subject to a back-door being there for them, no idea. But doubt that would apply if I used XenForo as a UK citizen, making sure it was also hosted in UK (and not the US).

 

[Adam Howard]

You sure about that one? Kier, Ashley and Mike all live in the UK and XenForo is a UK registered company. I don't see how your getting US coming into things with XenForo, apart from fact US people buy it. As for the US lawsuit, isn't that based on the fact Kier has been accused of taking things while visiting their main offices based on US soil, hence that being dealt with there. And not XenForo is a US company or anything.

Could be wrong, I've not followed the court case in detail like most?

Maybe if US people buy XenForo and host it in the US they could be subject to a back-door being there for them, no idea, But don't think that apply if I used XenForo a s UK citizen and host it in UK.

It would indeed prevent them from selling to America.

But if XenForo and all its owners are not American citizens, they could ignore a civil case in The USA. It would be like me trying to sue someone in Russia through an American court.

 

[mrGTB]

Far as I'm aware they are not US citizens, unless born there and moved to UK.

 

[Brandon Sheley]

Such as yourself, who seems to be very pro government.

you assume to much

 

[steven s]

Until a creditable news source posts the story I think everyone is getting worked up about nothing.

 

[Adam Howard]

Until a creditable news source posts the story I think everyone is getting worked up about nothing.

Define creditable.

NDAA and CISPA for example received little to no news from the likes of Cnn, Fox, Abc, Cbs, Pbs, Nbc, ect.... Last years "occupy" movement had over 50,000 people march into NY City on day 1, but no one covered it or said 1 word of it in the media until 3 months into it.

So define creditable.... If you're waiting for an American news agency to cry on this.... I'd not hold my breath.

 

[steven s]

So define creditable.... If you're waiting for an American news agency to cry on this.... I'd not hold my breath.

And cnet swooped all of them? Really?
Let's see. We have hate going on for the US.
Hate against Obama.
Isn't this really what this thread is about?

And I though politics was now forbidden because this is what this thread is all about.

 

[Adam Howard]

And cnet swooped all of them? Really?

Let's see. We have hate going on for the US.
Hate against Obama.
Isn't this really what this thread is about?

And I though politics was now forbidden because this is what this thread is all about.

What is Cnet compared to mainstream media?

Answer: A small grain of sand. It adds up to little to nothing. And perhaps someone there actually does believe in reporting the news, but it is nothing compared to mainstream news or as you may call it, "creditable news".

Laws are politics. The two go hand in hand, because it takes politics and politicians to pass them. And I don't recall saying I don't like America.

This thread is only about a law which may or may not come to pass.

 

[steven s]

The two go hand in hand, because it takes politics and politicians to pass them. And I don't recall saying I don't like America.

Didn't say you. I was referring to another post in the thread.
Everyone is free to have an opinion.