51–60 of 193 posts
They're setting themselves up for a hack so devastating that it will bring down their own country.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably Trump. However, many of the issues the NSA faces occurred before Trump's administration.
That's true. The concern should be Trump's sense of priorities. He's so easily distracted. He's seemingly more focused on Twitter than the NSA. He, similar to Obama, is the wrong "leader" at the wrong time. We're off course and getting more and more so with each day.
Under Trump they are not taken seriously and they have made significant progress in less than a year, and it's quite probable that military intervention will be necessary before Trump's term is up. It's well-known in the IC and Congress that Trump is a childlike senile fool who has no real grasp of any issue that can't be summarized in 160 characters. Certainly foreign leaders are well aware of it, ask Merkel what she thinks about him, let alone the less scrupulous countries like Saudi Arabia that are openly playing to it.
People don't appreciate how many things were quietly going right under Obama, and now the world's trouble spots are being allowed to fester under Trump. Some career State Department roles are down 60% in less than a year. Putin picked a great leader for his purposes, American leadership in the world has been diminished significantly and the basic machinery of our government is grinding to a halt. A+++ would hack again.
(of course there's no evidence that vote tallies were changed... yet. But the Trump campaign coordinated heavily with Russia and virtually everything short of changing vote tallies has been confirmed, so I just wouldn't be surprised to hear it at this point. There were quite a few "surprise wins" that nobody expected. It's quite likely that it can never be proved either way, thanks to the lack of paper trails and the active purge of some electronic records by state governments.)
“I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut."
This is to how a lot of people felt after the Snowden leaks.
“Every time it happens, you essentially have to start over.”
This goes both ways too. Every time something is compromised by the NSA, we have to start encrypting yet another part of our lives.
“It’s embarrassing that the people responsible for this have not been brought to justice.”
Again, both ways. Why has the NSA not been brought to justice? Closed courts and hiding behind the "national security" argument comes to mind.
"Rendition Infosec" - give me a break, you were a peeping tom secret policeman, not a kidnapping secret policeman.
I love how he refers to himself as an "operator" - like he's going downrange with SEALs or some shit.
"We settled on the name ‘operator’ to designate an operational member of the unit (as opposed to a member of the support staff) due to some legal and political situations. We couldn’t use ‘operative’ because that name had certain espionage connotations from the CIA. The term ‘agent’ had some legal issues. An agent carries a legal commission to perform certain duties and a governmental authority empowered by a state or federal constitution issues that commission. In our case, we would perform our duties under the authority of the federal government as administered by the Department of Defense and the Department of the Army. But in the military, only officers carry legal commissions from the President and are confirmed by Congress. Sergeants, who are noncommissioned officers, are authorized to perform their duties by virtue of appointment by the Secretary of the Army. Sergeants therefore cannot be agents of the government. And since almost every operational member of Delta Force is a sergeant, we needed to choose a different name for ourselves. Hence, operator. If that sounds sort of convoluted, it’s because it is. But if you work for any governmental entity, it will make perfect sense to you."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This would be your person opinion, given that the militaries of the US, the UK, China, Russia, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Spain, etc. (probably easier to name those that haven't) have officially performed such actions, with the soldiers in question receiving official honors and rewards?
Just because a lot of countries have done it doesn't make it any less shameful.
> "The fundamental purpose of intelligence is to be able to effectively penetrate our adversaries in order to gather vital intelligence. By its very nature, that only works if secrecy is maintained and our codes are protected." lol "codes"
Good. Working as intended. They could use some slowing and shaking. > calling into question [..] its very value to national security Its what now?
What are elections for in a representative democracy if the people elected don't represent the majority?
The biggest indictment of the NSA is the fact that there has been no visible internal dissent after Snowden regarding mass surveillance. Their willingness to overlook the constitution because it's inconvenient is a far bigger problem than leaks, IMO.
I believe this is the underlying cause of their security issues. People involved cannot voice their dissent so they act it out. The NSA and CIA are institutions established to protect a nation that abides by the rule of law. When the rule of law is brushed aside the people who are part of that system rebel.