This doesn't seem very sinister.
Sounds like NSA providing managed IDS to their clients just like private security firms that provide managed network security.
NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
41–49 of 49 posts
Re: NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
#42Re: NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
#43I love this photo! Classic geek with braided ponytail dressed in black sitting next to a uniformed guy (we hire both!). Both guys have 17 inch (or is it 15 inch) monitors that are switched off. Neither are looking at their screens. A quarter of the screen real-estate up front is taken up by NSA logos. The intelligence sign on the roof adds a certain irony. We can only hope the whole set is staged. http://www.reuters.…
Not to mention the large screen on the wall displaying a world map and lots of green text on black. It reminds me of a movie set. Given the very likely rapidly improving/changing technology used by the NSA, you have to wonder whether it's truly the movies basing their sets off of the real NSA, or if it's the other way around.
Re: NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
#44Re: NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
It reminds me of the London "Secure Beneath The Watchful Eyes" poster campaign from a few years ago: http://www.art-for-a-change.com/News/eyes.htm Either somebody is having an Orwellian joke, or somebody is frighteningly tone-deaf. I mean, even "Patriot Act" probably seemed like a good idea at the time (as did my personal favourite, Operation Infinite Justice), but Perfect Citizen is just weird.
The Iraq invasion was originally "Operation Iraqi Liberation" -- O.I.L.
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Re: NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
It amuses me, like in that James Bond film with Rosalind Pike, when Hollywood wants a secret organization even more sinister than the CIA they go for the NSA. I've (obv) never been to the NSA's office but I bet it's indistinguishable from any of the established high tech firms, like IBM or Boeing or Intel or Raytheon. Everyone clean-shaven and wearing a crisp white shirt. These guys write programs and research crypto…
From the government agencies I've done work in, I think it would be easily distinguishable from somewhere like Boeing. The government guys are the ones using Windows 98 and still trying to get the approval they started 9 years ago to upgrade to SE.
It's comforting to think of the government as bumbling, backward and behind the times, but you should NOT think of the NSA this way. They have been on the cutting edge of the technology for the past 10 years, they are building a massive data center in Utah for cyber-security purposes (http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/show...), they recruit heavily at hacking and security conventions, and they have multiple public private partnerships with heavy hitters in the tech world (http://247wallst.com/2010/02/04/an-unprecedented-public-priv...).
Re: NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
#47Really though. If you wanted to claim that it was just for research, why give it such an inflammatory name? Compare: 1) WebReader is monitoring internet data. 2) Perfect Citizen is monitoring internet data. Which one do you expect to be a robocop-like being that will kick down your door at night and declare "verdict: guilty, sentence: execution"? Not that this doesn't reflect an irrational trust on your part of innoc…
I think to the mindset of someone who chooses to work for the NSA being like Robocop is a GOOD thing. After all, Robocop catches the bad guys. If he comes and kicks down your door, it's because you were doing something wrong. If you sign up to work for an agency like the NSA, you're probably doing it because you want to serve your country and protect it from the bad guys. You're not setting out to create some kind of…
I think he meant ED-209 from the movie Robocop, so not a GOOD thing.
Re: NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did. Maybe I have been hanging around Craigslist too much...
these were both -1 when I got here, where's the sense of humor HN?
I don't understand this either. I think some HN users think of themselves as 'all business', but humor is a useful contribution. We are humans capable (and in need) of a range of emotions and responses. Embrace it.
It only gets to be a problem when it elbows out serious discussion, which this did not. As long as the actual conversation gets floated to the top, there is nothing wrong with some jokes as you scroll down.
Re: NSA Hooking Up Ominously Named 'Perfect Citizen' To Watch The Internet
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think to the mindset of someone who chooses to work for the NSA being like Robocop is a GOOD thing. After all, Robocop catches the bad guys. If he comes and kicks down your door, it's because you were doing something wrong. If you sign up to work for an agency like the NSA, you're probably doing it because you want to serve your country and protect it from the bad guys. You're not setting out to create some kind of…
you might not be setting out to create a police state, but neither were the majority of people signing up for the Nazi party. Don't confuse sincerity with being right
That's not a valid comparison. Hitler and the top people were trying to create a police state. It didn't just spring up by accident from people trying to otherwise do the right thing.