Sermon - TLIS - 2.3.2 - Covert Channel
2 Kings 4:27
When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”
Psalm 9:15
The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
Mark 4:22
For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.
Jeremiah 33:3
Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.
A covert channel is a communications channel or medium which is not supposed to be a communications medium. It's a communications channel which isn't supposed to be there, a communications channel that isn't supposed to exist. So, by and large, no access controls exist on the channel because nobody ever thought that it would be used as a communications channel.
In information technology terms, covert channels are generally either timing channels, or storage channels.
A timing channel is some indication, usually of a completely different function, which can be used to signal someone outside the system, or outside the controls of the system. This might, for example, be a cooling fan which will run faster, or slower, depending upon the load place upon a computer or other information technology device. When the load is heavy, the device runs hot, and the fan will that speed up in order to compensate and try to keep the system cool. Some attacker may be able to submit extra jobs to the system in order to make the fan run hot or cold, and can have this submission of jobs controlled by information that is only available inside the system. Then, the sound of the fan running faster or slower will indicate the data, and can be recorded outside the access control of the system.
Because of these sorts of complications, timing channels are usually fairly low bandwidth, and cannot broadcast too much information. However, if the information is sufficiently important, even a few bits will do.
Storage channels tend to hold information, and then, when the information is no longer needed, are abandoned or discarded. Recycled hard drives from business computers, for example, are very seldom wiped or zeroed out in order to erase the data that's on them. Therefore, people who go to recycling facilities are able to purchase hard drives and glean surprising amounts of very sensitive information how about certain companies.
As you might suppose, from these examples, covert channels are very often the stuff of spies. An example of a timing covert timing channel might be the opening and closing of a window blind in a certain window or house providing information. Another example is the famous "one if by land, two if by sea" of the American Revolution. A dead drop is a type of covert storage channel. It isn't supposed to be a mailbox, but it is, and people will leave bundles of information which can be retrieved by somebody else later on.
A covert channel can be used to get information out of a system. The thing is, it can also be used to get information *into* a system. Not always plainly, but sometimes surprisingly deeply.
With respect to the Christian life, where I am going with this shouldn't be too hard to figure out. The world has all kinds of ways to get its messages, as opposed to God's messages, through to us. The world does not need to directly attack us, and to overtly state that God doesn't exist. The world can just fail to mention God at all. In this way, the message soon comes through that, well, maybe God isn't that important after all.
There are other ways that the world can get its message through to us. For one thing, God should "stay in His lane." God is all very well on Sunday, and in dealing with issues of personal morality, but God shouldn't talk about politics. God shouldn't talk about economics. After all, God didn't invent these things, we did. (At least we think we did.)
So we say that God doesn't have any particular knowledge of, or awareness of, or interest in, or expertise in public policy. Or making laws. Or running a society. (Tell that to anybody who is reading their way through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.)
So, God should stay out of politics. God shouldn't have any opinions on homelessness, or on minimum wages, or on guaranteed annual income, or welfare, or anything of that sort. As far as the world is concerned, God really shouldn't have anything to do with that.
God shouldn't have anything to do with business, either. God shouldn't have any opinions on capitalism, or efficiency.
In another sermon, I speak about the concept of a reference monitor. The reference monitor can be used to check for some of the information that may be coming to you via a covert channel. Again, as with other aspects of life, if this information doesn't pass through the Christian reference monitor, then it may be coming to you via a covert channel. If it comes to you by a covert channel and doesn't go through the reference monitor either, then you should be looking at any beliefs or behaviors that this information is setting up in you. Make sure to use the Christian monitor reference monitor to protect you against covert channel type attacks against you, and feeding you information that is not to your benefit.
The covert channels that the world uses against us are, once again, means of communication that we may not see as means of communication. There is, for example, all the material all the communication that the world does to us, but on a recreational basis. Movies, and television shows, and plays that you just use to relax will also have all kinds of messages that the world can repeat and repeat and repeat until you simply come to accept it. The world will keep on telling you that your own pleasure is a good thing, the world will tell you not to worry too much about other people's problems. The world will tell you that you need a nice house, or a nice car, or a vacation, or something else that is going to use up your time, attention, and resources, rather than allowing you to put them at the service of God.
The world, of course, uses advertising to get you to buy things. But the specific things that advertising gets you to buy are somewhat secondary to a constant barrage of messages that you need to buy something, anything, anything other than what you already have. You deserve better. You need something else in your life, or your life has no meaning. You need something else in your life so that other people will like you and have relationships with you. The world also uses advertising to get you to believe things. (I'll buy that.)
And there are other messages coming through covert channels. Just simply the structure of our lives, forced upon us by our society. You have to have a job. You must have a job and make money. You must have money in order to live. You cannot work, for God, for God's purposes, and rely on the fact that God will provide for you, as he provides for everyone. Without requiring you to choose a job, and work at a job which, possibly you do not like, simply so that you can have the money to live in our money oriented society.
All of these are messages that the world sends to us through channels that we don't even recognize as communications channels.
Sometimes the messages are deeper, more hidden, and more insidious. Recently, a technical discussion on ethics and the use of artificial intelligence had one of the participants ask an AI chatbot to contribute. The contribution was interesting primarily because of the number of rhetorical tricks that the chatbot included in its response. However, when the response was analyzed, it could be seen that the basis of a number of the arguments boiled down to an assessment that ethics really did not exist except as an emotional or internal state in human beings. This, of course, is tantamount to saying that ethics do not actually exist and that any decisions on moral behavior are subjective at best. I'd say this argument is wrong. Hidden within it is the assumption that "ethics" is basically based only on emotions. I would go so far as to say that the argument is immoral, and an AI that would *make* the argument is immoral. (And the company that would make an AI that would make the argument is immoral?)
What is the world telling you that it isn't even telling you?
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