Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also entirely possible that unicorns are real.
But while the above possibility is merely unlikely, this possibility is logically impossible (using the definition of unicorn from philosophy). Quite a difference.
Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
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Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#62Ed was a Booz Allen Hamilton employee only for a couple of months. He wasn't even out of his probation period as an employee. It's really amazing that in such a short time he was able to siphon all this information out of the NSA. I wonder what more information could he have collected if he had spent a longer time contracting for the NSA. I wonder how much more about the NSA we could know if people who have dedicated…
Or what damage a normal spy could have done...
I suppose it's not beyond belief that Snowden _could_ have been a CIA operative the entire time he was in the NSA and "blowing his cover" by going public was just the endgame to move scrutiny of CIA projects to NSA projects. Of course, there's a thousand conspiracy theories. What if that wasn't the endgame? What if "defecting" to Russia is still part of a bigger operation?
Just to be clear, I have no evidence supporting this theory, nor do I believe he's any more than he suggests. But we'd all do well to evaluate what and why we trust the things we do from time to time.
Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#63>8) Circumstantial evidence and conventional wisdom indicates Russian responsibility. Here's why that is significant: Interesting that he's not afraid to point the finger at Russia while still relying on them for protection. My respect for him just went up.
Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for summarizing that. As others have commented, I wish Snowden would simply blog about this sort of thing. Twitter is frustrating to digest for any insightful commentary that is on the longer side.
Yeah I don't understand why people don't just blog and be done with it, without all the formatting gredue. Then, you can just post a link on your twitter and say "hey, see my new blog post".
Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
But while the above possibility is merely unlikely, this possibility is logically impossible (using the definition of unicorn from philosophy). Quite a difference.
Both are absurd points to make. Just because something is theoretically possible in some version of the universe doesn't mean it's worth discussing without any real evidence. Tinfoil hat or not.
Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want to put on your tinfoil hat for a second, consider the fact that Snowden started his career in the military, then moved to CIA, then moved to Booz Allen. It's entirely possible that Snowden is an ongoing CIA op to discredit their rival NSA as part of a turf war.
It's also entirely possible that unicorns are real.
He comes from a multigenerational military family. That's the kind of background that breeds strong loyalty to the state, and the exact kind of background from which the CIA recruits its top spies.
I find it almost implausible that someone with that kind of loyalty would suddenly resign from the CIA after they invested so much in him, only to jump ship to a private contractor. If his reasons for leaving the CIA were purely moral, why would a private contractor ameliorate any of those concerns? It seems more likely the CIA sent him to Booz Allen.
But hey, it's all a big conspiracy right? Don't believe anything you read on the Internet, except what Ed Snowden tells you.
Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#67Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 5) Knowing this, NSA's hackers (TAO) are told not to leave their hack tools ("binaries") on the server after an op. But people get lazy. I know enough to say that this sentence reveals a lot about what snowden knows, and what he doesn't. Mostly the latter. He doesn't seem to understand the context and meaning of acronyms he uses.
Care to elaborate? TAO ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations ) seems fine to me.
Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#69>8) Circumstantial evidence and conventional wisdom indicates Russian responsibility. Here's why that is significant: Interesting that he's not afraid to point the finger at Russia while still relying on them for protection. My respect for him just went up.
As far as I can tell, many of the same things can be said of Wikileaks and Julian Assange as well.
Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is
#70However, I did find that one of the autogenerated shellcodes for EXTRABACON contained this DoD-assigned IP: 155.222.211.8 (http://whois.domaintools.com/155.222.211.8). The OrgName is "DoD Network Information Center". This appears to be run by DISA which is also headquartered at Ft. Meade.