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Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

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Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#81
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a well known computer software company, and one of the close by teams worked on a photo-sharing web-app, which also allowed for private albums. While analyzing the metadata someone discovered that a certain rare and expensive camera model was used almost exclusively to shoot models, including nude ones. Searching the storage for pictures made with that camera model became a popular activity in that team…

It's hard to believe that it would be worth violating your users' trust for some nudes. The internet has enough free racy pictures to last anyone a lifetime.

Its not inconceivable employees may feel less burdened by trust than owners.

Perhaps the illicit nature of the trust violation adds something beyond the legally available porn.

Evidenced by the criminal risks voyeurs still take to get creepshots, upskirts,

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#82
post #34

This raises an interesting question: how did Snowden get the documents out of the NSA? I don't recall reading much about how this was accomplished. Has that been discussed/reported anywhere?

Wasn't he working from home from Hawaii as a contractor with a remote login and could easily transfer data from NSA systems at his leisure? Isn't this whole framing of a Jason Bourne-esque exfiltration of the data just a myth? Aside from Snowden you don't have to elaborately hide an SD card in a Rubik's cube. Just strick it in a condom and shove it. From what I've read security against this sort of exfiltration is fo…

[deleted]

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they don't feel like spending the rest of their lives in permanent solitary confinement in ADX Florence.

Yeah, but surely there would be a way to get the ball rolling without outing yourself. NSA analysts are going to be acquainted with at least the basic ways to stay anonymous online. If they found something interesting in the correspondence destined for a prominent politician or corporate officer, they could get the rumor mill started, or even make strategic leaks. Perhaps they already are doing it and we just aren't…

Actually Snowden reveals they can perform such a search[1].

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-...

PRISM can notify when new emails appear and can provide a live view of the targets online activity. [2]

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-...

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#84
post #5

I just watched the trailer. Clichéd brilliant patriotic dude saves the day. Bonus: Movie OS. This is gonna be such a great bad movie.

Actor's forced Snowden deep voice is hilarious. He's trying so hard, and yet it sounds like a 12 year old trying to sound older. Also expect at least two forced action/drama scenes that never happened. They are staging the Hong Kong hotel meeting, of which real footage exists, as if it were an action scene.

Citizen Fours version of the Hong Kong meeting uses no cinematic devices to convey the palpable excitement.

Poitras's film contrasts the complete lack of 'action scene' with the consequences facing the protagonists.

Conveyed only by their attempts to suppress their mounting unease and the fight to calmly apply the opsec - the tension unbearably mounts second by second, the effect of distant sounds implies the real dangers.

Snowden's emotions are brutally felt, his lament at his loss left no dry eyes.

The stillness and unmoving camera style conveys more terror and excitement than jump cuts or explosive choreography can.

https://citizenfourfilm.com/

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Imitation Game was bad?

It gets a fair amount of hate on HN for taking narrative liberties with Turing's actual life story. I won't deny that it does, and anyone who's genuinely interested in Alan Turing would do better to read about him and his work. But the movie is a dramatization, not a documentary. Because of that, it got the general, non-CS-major public to care about Alan Turing. I'd say that's a pretty decent accomplishment. I actual…

If "narrative liberties" are an issue for you, than you should never watch a Hollywood movie that is "based on a true story".

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#86
post #34

This raises an interesting question: how did Snowden get the documents out of the NSA? I don't recall reading much about how this was accomplished. Has that been discussed/reported anywhere?

Wasn't he working from home from Hawaii as a contractor with a remote login and could easily transfer data from NSA systems at his leisure? Isn't this whole framing of a Jason Bourne-esque exfiltration of the data just a myth? Aside from Snowden you don't have to elaborately hide an SD card in a Rubik's cube. Just strick it in a condom and shove it. From what I've read security against this sort of exfiltration is fo…

> Aside from Snowden you don't have to elaborately hide an SD card in a Rubik's cube. Just strick it in a condom and shove it.

Or just use a spy coin. The UK pound coin version is pretty good, but will stop working when we change our coins. Coins are handy because you carry them in your pockets, so they avoid xray checks at airports.

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#87
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but surely there would be a way to get the ball rolling without outing yourself. NSA analysts are going to be acquainted with at least the basic ways to stay anonymous online. If they found something interesting in the correspondence destined for a prominent politician or corporate officer, they could get the rumor mill started, or even make strategic leaks. Perhaps they already are doing it and we just aren't…

Actually Snowden reveals they can perform such a search[1]. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-... PRISM can notify when new emails appear and can provide a live view of the targets online activity. [2] [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-...

Ah, he's quoted in the article saying that he has to have a personal email address. That probably means that there's a filter and/or blacklist that's at least watching for, if not actively blocking, access to whitehouse.gov and/or other official/important domains. This probably extends into the commercial world. I wonder if looking up anything other than the conventional email domains is a cause for suspicion. Thus, looking up "trump@trump.biz", for example, is inadvisable.

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#88
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually Snowden reveals they can perform such a search[1]. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-... PRISM can notify when new emails appear and can provide a live view of the targets online activity. [2] [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-...

Ah, he's quoted in the article saying that he has to have a personal email address. That probably means that there's a filter and/or blacklist that's at least watching for, if not actively blocking, access to whitehouse.gov and/or other official/important domains. This probably extends into the commercial world. I wonder if looking up anything other than the conventional email domains is a cause for suspicion. Thus,…

Who watches the watchers ?

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#89
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know …?

For starters, it's the only time travel movie that explains why time travel doesn't drop you somewhere in deep space where the Earth used to be.

I find Primer interesting for the relatable human story. What are they doing with this knowledge and why?

Even Primer is fairy dust. The plot makes enough up to suspend your disbelief. For instance, I just made a rule up for my hypothetical new movie: travelling through time drops the traveler in the same location of the frame of reference they inhabit. This is always a fixed location relative to the Earth if the traveller is static relative to the Earth, and hence in the same frame of reference.

Re: Snowden’s Rubik’s Cube

#90
post #51

I'm sure the nerds here will find ample opportunities to tear this movie apart, but keep in mind that the "average American" (a) doesn't know much about Snowden, other than "he stole secrets and hid in commie Russia, so he must've been working for them", and (b) just believes what the government says. To counter the powerful voice of the government, you need an equally powerful voice like Hollywood. Maybe this movie…

This movie is made by Oliver Stone right? Judging by prior work like The Doors (Jim Morrison) and Alexander (Alexander the Great) I don't have high hopes. Oliver Stone likes to destroy characters on the big screen paying attention to the flaws rather than the charisma of his charactes. Jesus, I didn't remember a single battle scene from the movie "Alexander" and this guy went from Greece to India on horse battling hi…

Snowden was a favorite to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival at an early Out of Competition slot. Stone himself requested an early slot. In the end he didn't get it, so this is a hint that the movie lacks something.

On the other side Laura Poitras new Assange documentary "Risk" screens in the Quinzaine (Directors fortnight) competition.

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