NSA & the switch to HTTPS?

[steyr_m]

With all the talk about NSA spying, should GSUS make the move to HTTPS? It has been brought up before, but didn't go far.... What does GSUS-land say?

[vacuum]

I'd love it. We really don't need ISPs scanning for keywords and sending logs. JQP would probably need some help though, probably technical and some money to pay for it.

[gunDriller]

i don't understand how it works.

what stops the NSA from joining (creating a membership) and then downloading pages, possibly after doing a keyword search.

e.g. they want to know which members call Israel 'IsraHell'.

they get that list, write some bullshit, and get a judge to support a subpoena of server logs etc.


would HTTPS protect us from that ?

[Ares]

With all the talk about NSA spying, should GSUS make the move to HTTPS? It has been brought up before, but didn't go far.... What does GSUS-land say?

HTTPS will only encrypt your traffic between your computer and the site. The NSA I'm sure can still crawl and index it. Although I'm not sure if google can or does index https sites.

It requires an SSL certificate. There are tons of SSL sellers. I'd probably use verisign (now Symantec) before I'd purchase an SSL from godaddy.

[Ares]

i don't understand how it works.

what stops the NSA from joining (creating a membership) and then downloading pages, possibly after doing a keyword search.

e.g. they want to know which members call Israel 'IsraHell'.

they get that list, write some bullshit, and get a judge to support a subpoena of server logs etc.


would HTTPS protect us from that ?

Nothing, the only way to protect the site and content of that is to do what the private torrent trackers do, by making it invitation only. You limit your growth that way. But you also make sure that everyone knows someone on the site limiting outside interference and intrusion. Right now even though the NSA and or google are not members their crawlers are able to crawl and index the site and pages. Would be the same with https I'd assume if left open in it's current format.

[gunDriller]

Nothing, the only way to protect the site and content of that is to do what the private torrent trackers do, by making it invitation only. You limit your growth that way. But you also make sure that everyone knows someone on the site limiting outside interference and intrusion. Right now even though the NSA and or google are not members their crawlers are able to crawl and index the site and pages. Would be the same with https I'd assume if left open in it's current format.

if we leave it open, "they" (NSA employees) might learn something.

could even inspire the next Edward Snowden.


i wonder if G-S.us is banned on employee computers at DHS ?