IT Security Stack Exchange
IT Security Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [government]

A group of people that governs a community or unit.

A group of people that governs a community or unit. It sets and administers public policy and exercises executive, political and sovereign power through customs, institutions, and laws within a state. A government can be classified into many types: democracy, republic, monarchy, aristocracy, dictatorship, etc.

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What are the implications of NSA surveillance on the average internet user?

It would appear as though the tinfoil hat-wearing were vindicated today, as news broke of the true scale of the U.S. government's surveillance of its citizens' online activities, conducted primarily through the NSA and seemingly beyond the realm of…
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How would a resourceful government block Tor?

I came across this article saying that after the November 2015 Paris attacks, some French police officers proposed to ban Tor. Tor is used to circumvent censorship! What security techniques would governments use to block Tor?
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Is there a way to make sure my government does not swap out SSL certificates?

I was recently wondering whether there exists a way to make sure my government is not swapping out SSL certificates in order to intercept the traffic. I know almost all browsers are complaining in case of a self-signed certificate. But what prevents…
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Why not use a national ID as username for every website?

Everyday we visit many websites, including our university's website, maybe Google, Yahoo, etc. But on each of them, we have a unique username, while each person in a country can have a "national code" such that no persons share a code. So, they…
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Can we still provide confidentiality when cryptography is outlawed?

In certain jurisdictions, use of cryptography by the private sector is limited: e.g. there are reports that in the UAE and other countries not all of the encryption capabilities of the BlackBerry are permitted. Similarly, in the 1990s the U.S.…
user185
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How do US government agencies open their email attachments?

I suppose the FBI receives email with attachments, like any other government agency: documents, resumes/CVs, etc. I also suppose they are very careful not to get infected, more than the average user, for obvious reasons. If I were to send an email…
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Why would the government collect Wi-Fi SSIDs via manual door-to-door questioning of citizens?

I live in a country with little freedom on the Internet (not as strict as in China, but some sites, particularly anti-government sites are inaccessible without a VPN). Recently the government just went collecting the Wi-Fi names of every house. I…
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NSA Suite A Cryptography: Security through obscurity?

What is the opinion of scholars, cryptographers on NSA Suite A? Containing unpublished algorithms. Could it really be that much better than the published algorithms besides being obscure and not documented publicly?
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Any known cases of government backdoors creating exploitable security holes?

As the Apple v FBI battle unfolds, government backdoors will become a hot topic. As background to that, I have two questions: Are there any known cases where governments have forced tech companies to introduce backdoors into their products? (I'm…
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Protecting critical state infrastructure from the aftermath of a nuclear blast

Countries rely on computer infrastructure for a huge percentage of communications and military management, as well as utilities like electricity. Unfortunately, nuclear attacks release massive electromagnetic pulses that damage these…
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A government agency sent our website admin an email that our website had been defaced

We got an official email saying that our website had been hacked. They cited the URL to use to see the new suspicious file that had been dropped in our web root folder (s.htm). Just some text about a "Morrocan Made hacker - I'm Back" in the HTML…
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What is the best way to respond to phishing emails sent from a government domain?

In the past day or so, I've received two emails from different .gov addresses that purport to be from Intuit and encourage me to click on a link to "restore access to your QuickBooks account." They aren't pretending to be government addresses. If I…
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Why does the government/military not use special operating systems?

Why does military and government not use special operating systems? I mean, if they do not use generic operating system based on Windows, Linux and Mac and create their own operating system, they will be much secure.. Or am I mistaken?
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Is strategic cyber-warfare feasible today?

Cyber attacks that target a nation's infrastructure are a documented fact and as such a danger that political and military leadership across the world needs to worry about and act proactively. These attacks can be disruptive but given the relatively…
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Online Government Elections System - Is it possible?

I am from Bulgaria and currently some groups here are promoting the idea of referendum among the people, about the possibility for establishing a system for ONLINE GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS. The idea is that the people should be able to vote for…
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