Vietnam's contact tracing app broadcasting a fixed ID(vnhacker.blogspot.com)
vnhacker.blogspot.com
Vietnam's contact tracing app broadcasting a fixed ID
https://vnhacker.blogspot.com/2020/04/vietnams-contact-tracing-app_26.html
6 comments
The app is open source now: https://github.com/BluezoneGlobal/bluezone-app.
The id generation code is in this library: https://github.com/BluezoneGlobal/react-native-bluetooth-sca...
Vietnamese here, no one in Vietnam cares about this app. Hence the creator also doesn't care about app security.
In less than a week, 77K people have installed the app, according to the official tally published by the developer.
The growth rate is 2x-3x every day, faster than COVID-19.
The growth rate is 2x-3x every day, faster than COVID-19.
deleted in the interest of a fellow hacker.
I wrote the article. I agreed. It's a bad joke. I have no intention causing harm to this system.
>I have no intention causing harm to this system.
I took that intent from the article, but 'professionals' aren't always as kind in their reading of things like that.
Interesting article.
I took that intent from the article, but 'professionals' aren't always as kind in their reading of things like that.
Interesting article.
Thanks.
I have no strong evidence, but it seems that Force 47 is actively monitoring my blog [1]. I've never got so many personal attacks and smear comments like I did since I published my findings. I bet one of them will cite your comment as an evidence of my "immaturity".
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_brigades
I have no strong evidence, but it seems that Force 47 is actively monitoring my blog [1]. I've never got so many personal attacks and smear comments like I did since I published my findings. I bet one of them will cite your comment as an evidence of my "immaturity".
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_brigades
>I bet one of them will cite your comment as an evidence of my "immaturity".
I have no clue whether or not your hunch is valid, but in the interest of good will I edited the comment; too late for a delete from me.
Good luck, I hope your voice gets heard.
I have no clue whether or not your hunch is valid, but in the interest of good will I edited the comment; too late for a delete from me.
Good luck, I hope your voice gets heard.
Thanks, appreciate it! Check out this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22991028.
Author here. One interesting aspect that I've learned is the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of public opinion brigades, aka Force 47.
They tried hard to discrete me. My initial report had an error, that is I didn't know that Bluetooth on Android needs ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission. A person pointed this out in a comment -- he posted and rewrote it three times. I said thank you and thought that's that, but then he and a bunch of new people commented that since I made that basic mistake I'm immature and inexperienced, therefore the rest of my findings have no merit.
Someone then posted a super long comment, raising a lot of questions about my credibility and intention. The interesting thing is they claimed that they're a student, haven't installed the app, have no intention to do so, but care a lot about privacy. Essentially they want to show that they're merely an underdog bystander standing up against my wrongdoings. I thought this is a very subtle psychological trick, aiming to amplify their attacks.
Other attacks are more direct. For example, a person pointed out that since I don't have many followers on Twitter, I'm not a good engineer. They said I didn't really contribute anything to my public research, but I just took credit from my coauthors. That I am only cleaning toilet at Google, there's nothing proud about that.
After I posted a rebuttal to the developers' rebuttal, a guy [2] dropped this one-line comment:
>cái vụ này bắt đầu thấy nhảm rồi. Lập luận của anh Thái cũng không còn chặt chẽ như trước nữa.
Which translates to "This is getting nonsense. Thai's argument is not as strict as before".
The title of the guy's blog [3] is, I kid you not, "There's always only one truth: Communist Party of Vietnam.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_brigades
[2] https://www.blogger.com/profile/17567201928186857755
[3] http://phichnuocnong.blogspot.com/
They tried hard to discrete me. My initial report had an error, that is I didn't know that Bluetooth on Android needs ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission. A person pointed this out in a comment -- he posted and rewrote it three times. I said thank you and thought that's that, but then he and a bunch of new people commented that since I made that basic mistake I'm immature and inexperienced, therefore the rest of my findings have no merit.
Someone then posted a super long comment, raising a lot of questions about my credibility and intention. The interesting thing is they claimed that they're a student, haven't installed the app, have no intention to do so, but care a lot about privacy. Essentially they want to show that they're merely an underdog bystander standing up against my wrongdoings. I thought this is a very subtle psychological trick, aiming to amplify their attacks.
Other attacks are more direct. For example, a person pointed out that since I don't have many followers on Twitter, I'm not a good engineer. They said I didn't really contribute anything to my public research, but I just took credit from my coauthors. That I am only cleaning toilet at Google, there's nothing proud about that.
After I posted a rebuttal to the developers' rebuttal, a guy [2] dropped this one-line comment:
>cái vụ này bắt đầu thấy nhảm rồi. Lập luận của anh Thái cũng không còn chặt chẽ như trước nữa.
Which translates to "This is getting nonsense. Thai's argument is not as strict as before".
The title of the guy's blog [3] is, I kid you not, "There's always only one truth: Communist Party of Vietnam.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_brigades
[2] https://www.blogger.com/profile/17567201928186857755
[3] http://phichnuocnong.blogspot.com/
If I remember rightly, requiring ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION for certain uses of Bluetooth on Android is a relatively new thing and the two used to be completely independent of each other, so it's not even that surprising a mistake to make.
Hi anh, be calm. Don't get triggered by their comments, it's a trap. Ignore the trolls. Keep your report succinct and professional. Stay safe and strong!
Sounds like you're up against some real communists. Westerners don't understand the psychology.
Contract tracing is a disaster. I’ve secured a forensic RF shielding bag for my phone. I refuse to participate
That's fine, then stay at home. You're a liability to the rest of us. It's fair if you don't want to use it, but then you cannot go anywhere near any other person, because you're putting everyone at risk.
That’s a little extreme- if someone doesn’t want to be tracked they must stay at home and shamed? There are other alternatives.
It's not ok to cross into personal attack in HN comments, so please don't.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
By going out you're already putting people at risk, tracker or no tracker attached. You and people like you, thinking this is a perfect solution, are actually a bigger liability to public health.
It's not ok to cross into personal attack in HN comments, so please don't.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
"By going out you're already putting people at risk, tracker or no tracker attached"
This is completely false because, with contact tracing, we can probabilistically determine who has likely to have had contact and therefore be infected, which is a proven technique for the suppression of COVID.
Korea has implemented this solution, it works, and their economy is open.
By venturing outside without contact-tracing - we know the results: Italy, Spain etc..
Just the opposite ... it's the 'privacy fanatics' who are having difficulty grasping a situation that hits at their preconceived sensitivities.
'Just go outside' will kill is quickly.
'Shelter in place' will kill us slowly.
'Contact tracing policy - (followup, quarantine for those affected) means we can go about our business roughly as normal with only the slight inconvenience of having an 'app' on our phones and possibly wearing masks.
I'm sorry but it's the anti-contact tracing people that are the tip of the anti-science community right now.
Anti contact tracing people are the new 'anti-vaxxers'.
This is completely false because, with contact tracing, we can probabilistically determine who has likely to have had contact and therefore be infected, which is a proven technique for the suppression of COVID.
Korea has implemented this solution, it works, and their economy is open.
By venturing outside without contact-tracing - we know the results: Italy, Spain etc..
Just the opposite ... it's the 'privacy fanatics' who are having difficulty grasping a situation that hits at their preconceived sensitivities.
'Just go outside' will kill is quickly.
'Shelter in place' will kill us slowly.
'Contact tracing policy - (followup, quarantine for those affected) means we can go about our business roughly as normal with only the slight inconvenience of having an 'app' on our phones and possibly wearing masks.
I'm sorry but it's the anti-contact tracing people that are the tip of the anti-science community right now.
Anti contact tracing people are the new 'anti-vaxxers'.
> suppression of COVID.
Exactly suppression, not prevention. If you're immunocompromised, old or in a risk group, which most americans are, you're s* out of luck, even with the app, you can't really go outside.
People thinking contact tracing is the silver bullet are just delusional or outright dangerous. Especially if those people also think contact tracing can't be done privacy-friendly.
Exactly suppression, not prevention. If you're immunocompromised, old or in a risk group, which most americans are, you're s* out of luck, even with the app, you can't really go outside.
People thinking contact tracing is the silver bullet are just delusional or outright dangerous. Especially if those people also think contact tracing can't be done privacy-friendly.
Very interesting