Wednesday, September 9, 2015

E-MAIL. PRIVATE OR IS IT PUBLIC?

Social Commentary by,
Harry Langdon


Way back when, we used to send military directives by a carrier pigeon or by waving various flags on a ship. Today top secret e-mails are being sent by e-mail. Same thing, possible military directives that we would dare not want a foreign government to intercept. After all there are 320 million American citizen’s lives at stake.

There is a way of securing your e-mail, encrypting it. It costs about $400.00 a year and it is totally secure, I could have the device downloaded to my computer in 15 minutes. By the way ISIS uses that encrypted coded system ---- What happened! This is supposed to be the most technologically advanced country in the world. Rockets to Mars etc., I can hear the Chinese, North Koreans and Russians laughing.

If an individual is elected or deemed to be in charge of our country's current and future safety, would they not be trained in how to work a simple device like a couple Blackberry's, or... Plus the placement of the Server of that e mail, to be in a secure location. But where it, or they were stored, could have been bagged by the average break-in bandit. Then fenced or sold at the local flea market sale the next Sunday for a couple hundred. A spy would have a ‘Motherload‘ or do they now?

When I was kid, don’t ask how long ago, my Grandmother had a cabin in Cambria, California. It had a phone which by today’s standards is basic and primitive, with a dial you would twirl to get a number. Everyone in the neighborhood would hear the ringing that was going to or from each others' phones. As a kid I would observe my parents pick up the receiver and quietly listen in on each others calls. That system is obsolete now. It was called a ‘Party Line’.



But what was devious was, they would purposely give inaccurate messages to the other party, so that when it would get back to the sender, they knew that it was somebody eavesdropping. Got-Cha!

Now in the year 2015, top Government officials are using something like a 'Party-Line' for their e-mails. Totally insecure, no $400.00 encrypting device.--- I am wondering if it was like my Grandma used to do, give out false gossip to trap a eavesdropping neighbor, or is it sheer ignorance of today’s technology.

It is now cyber water under an invisible bridge. We have to pray that the information that I am sure hostile and friendly governments have gotten, from an insecure server, monitored by an insecure tech representative with no credentials to handle Top Secret information. As an aside, he has pleaded the 5th amendment now, so he is talking.

Well I hope we have made more progress since Grannies time, Very high tech security encrypting devices and we have our own listening in on our neighbors ‘Party Lines. Back then, it was just innocent gossip on the old Party Line. But now the stakes are much more serious and the security of 320,000,000 Americans is at stake.


- Harry Langdon
Los Angeles, CA
Sept. 9, 2015






1 comment:

  1. I recall going to a public phone box in great Britain , l picked up the phone and heard two woman chatting! I was so quiet they did not know l was listening! Then l finally made my phone call.

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