Digital Identity, Privacy, and Security with Brian Warner

Summary

As the internet and digital technologies continue to infiltrate our way of life, we are forced to consider how our concepts of identity and security are reflected in these spaces. Brian Warner joins me this week to discuss his work on privacy focused projects that he has worked on, including the Tahoe LAFS, Firefox Sync, and Magic Wormhole. He also has some intriguing ideas about how we can replace passwords and what it means to have an online identity.

Preface

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• Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Brian Warner about digital identity, privacy, and security

Interview

• Please introduce yourself
• How did you get introduced to Python?
• How did you get involved in the area of cryptography and digital privacy?
• You have created or made significant contributions to a number of projects that are focused on making secure communications and storage more accessible, including Tahoe LAFS (Least Authority File System), Magic Wormhole, and Petmail. Can you provide a brief overview of these projects and any others that you would like to mention?
• What problem were you trying to solve when you created or began contributing to each of them and how satisfied are you with their current state?
• What have you found to be the biggest barriers to adoption for these projects?
• How do Tahoe and Magic Wormhole benefit an average user and what are your plans for their future development?
• One of the most ubiquitous issues with our modern security infrastructure leading to compromise is the humble password. What are some technologies that you foresee replacing the need for passwords?
• As technologists we are fairly well aware of the weaknesses in the systems that we use day-to-day. How can we make digital privacy and security more accessible?

Contact Info

warner on GitHub
@lotharrr on Twitter

Picks

• Brian
  • Ra on Things of Interest
  • The Golden Age by John C. Wright

Links

• Tor
• Petmail (v1, ca 2003)
• Petmail (new)
• Mojo Nation
• Tahoe-LAFS
• Magic-Wormhole
• Erasure Coding
• Firefox Sync
• JPAKE
• SPAKE2
• PyCon 2016 Presentation on Magic Wormhole (video)
• (slides)
• Versioneer
• Keybase File System
• Least Authority Enterprises
• Foolscap
• SpiderOak
• Object Capability Pattern
• Shamir’s Secret Sharing
• AutoCrypt
• Signal
• WhatsApp
• Simply Secure