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Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

blog.cryptographyengineering.com

111–120 of 244 posts

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Before Snowden, if you spoke about these issues, you were dismissed as paranoid. I’ve been telling people for years, but nobody listened. Now everyone knows it’s true, but still nobody seems to care…

>Now everyone knows it’s true, but still nobody seems to care… That just about sums up every bad act. Lots of people were aware of all the bank fraud and toxic loans leading to the 2008 real estate bubble, no one cared leading up to it, and no one cares now. The Googles/Facebooks/amazons are collecting and doing unsavory things with your data, whether you ever used their services or not (shadow accounts), no one seem…

Source on this?

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#112

The article mentions MUSCULAR, but neglected the follow-up: shortly after the leaks, Google began encrypting all of its internal traffic over its own fiber links.[0] First, it's worth pointing out that "encrypt everything in flight always" is not prohibitively expensive on modern hardware; also that your own internal network should not be viewed as an impenetrable bastion where you can let down your guard, just becau…

“Security of organisations should be done in layers” and each layer makes breaking into your (whole) organisation harder, but comes with friction for your staff.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#113

Oh yeah : - Before Snowden, if you spoke about these issues, you were dismissed as paranoid. - After Snowden, if you dismiss these issues, you are dismissed as hopelessly naive... Oh, also - considering all this - you can bet that Intel's Management Engine has likely been backdoored by the NSA, so using Intel's processors is not recommended, especially if you're a non-US company... (industrial espionage !) https://bl…

Today, if you suggest that Snowden is a plant; how he might still be working for a government agency like the NSA, CIA or State Department; how he was a black ops to see how Americans would react: you get dismissed as paranoid. Every time I bring this up, I get downvoted to grey. Can we have an honest discussion on this?

Guy makes six figured, works remotely as an NSA contractor from Hawaii, suddenly had a moral conscience, somehow had multiple laptops with classified data, leaves his smoking hot girlfriend to meet journalists from The Guardian and Der Spegiel and gave them evidence that was composed of poorly made slides; almost all of which have been released heavily redacted -- all have been heavily dismissed by the US government, Yahoo, Google, Verizon and others. Honestly, the 9/11 truth evidence feels like it should have been more convincing, and yet every media agency took this as gospel.

If the revelations are taken at face value, why couldn't it also be possible this was all just a test by intelligence agencies? Companies have strengthened their general security and the general population hasn't .. really cared. Both of those are valuable pieces of information gathered by the government.

Look at COINTELPRO and Operation Mockingbird. At the time, if you had said such programs existed, it would have been viewed as crazy conspiracy. But they did exist and intelligence agencies in the US government has manipulated their own people in past decades.

Either Snowden is incredibly clever and lucky, or he's a stage show. He should be in the situation Assange is in now. It's difficult to believe he's still in an unknown location, hiding out in Russia. The whole story stinks and I feel like no one wants to have a rational talk about the alternative: that it may be more manipulation and testing to show that Americans don't really care about surveillance.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Before Snowden, if you spoke about these issues, you were dismissed as paranoid. I’ve been telling people for years, but nobody listened. Now everyone knows it’s true, but still nobody seems to care…

I wouldn't say I don't care. I would say I permanently trust government less, as I do feel mostly powerless to make them less nosey. If I have an opportunity to vote against mass surveillance, I will do that for sure.

Under what circumstances can you imagine being given a vote on mass surveillance?

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My initial statement was nothing else as colloquial and should be regarded as such of course. I would say implementing mass surveillance would equally make it impossible to clear the NSA from such accusation.

The NSA is subject to oversight from all three branches of government. So, to the point that you don't believe two or three entire administrations are/were actively working for a foreign power, you can reasonably assume that the NSA is not committing treason. A lot is going wrong there, but there are limits imposed by the transparency and rule of law. Compare that situation to a country like the Russian Federation.

But I can falsify the assumption about the effectiveness of oversight with cases from overreach that happened in the past.

So oversight probably isn't effective enough for agencies like the NSA and I am reliant on first hand information such as provided by Edward Snowden. Which have shown that it happened again.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Before Snowden, if you spoke about these issues, you were dismissed as paranoid. I’ve been telling people for years, but nobody listened. Now everyone knows it’s true, but still nobody seems to care…

If I asked 10 people around me, who is Edward Snowden, maybe one would know. When the story broke, I never heard anyone in real life bring it up. I know young wealthy people who don’t know who Elon Musk is. People’s attention is highly fragmented.

It's not about the guy's name, what's important is how people's perceptions have changed (which I would generalise as from scornful dismissal to resigned acceptance)

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#117
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Description of my life. I was telling people for years what is going on, not from position of daydreaming, but what I would be able to pull off. I got back everything from tin foil hat to "I have nothing to hide". Snowden changed that and I am gratefull to him for exactly that... And for one more sentance, that is a work of pure genius: “Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing…

> “Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” I find this sentence interesting because it is very specific to the American public. I am European and personally I care a lot more about privacy than free speech, and America's obsession with free speech boggles my mind. It might hav…

America was settled largely by people fleeing religious persecution in Europe.

> It might have to do with the last time we in Europe experimented with unadulterated free speech, and got Hitler and WW2 as a result.

Um, I'm not sure what they put in your history books over there, but I'm certain that's not an accurate characterization of how that happened.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing to suggest an ME backdoor. I’d call it unlikely.

Watch this Blackhat 2017 talk and maybe it'll change your mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrksBdWcZgQ

Very familiar with it, nothing indicating a backdoor there.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#119
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Description of my life. I was telling people for years what is going on, not from position of daydreaming, but what I would be able to pull off. I got back everything from tin foil hat to "I have nothing to hide". Snowden changed that and I am gratefull to him for exactly that... And for one more sentance, that is a work of pure genius: “Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing…

> “Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” I find this sentence interesting because it is very specific to the American public. I am European and personally I care a lot more about privacy than free speech, and America's obsession with free speech boggles my mind. It might hav…

Blaming WWII on free speech is like blaming 9/11 on planes.

If Europeans are too weak for freedom that is their perogative, though I do not understand it.

Re: Looking Back at the Snowden Revelations

#120

Oh yeah : - Before Snowden, if you spoke about these issues, you were dismissed as paranoid. - After Snowden, if you dismiss these issues, you are dismissed as hopelessly naive... Oh, also - considering all this - you can bet that Intel's Management Engine has likely been backdoored by the NSA, so using Intel's processors is not recommended, especially if you're a non-US company... (industrial espionage !) https://bl…

Today, if you suggest that Snowden is a plant; how he might still be working for a government agency like the NSA, CIA or State Department; how he was a black ops to see how Americans would react: you get dismissed as paranoid. Every time I bring this up, I get downvoted to grey. Can we have an honest discussion on this? Guy makes six figured, works remotely as an NSA contractor from Hawaii, suddenly had a moral cons…

If the govt wanted to test the public's reaction I don't think they needed to go so far as to reveal PRISM or MUSCULAR.

> It's difficult to believe he's still in an unknown location, hiding out in Russia.

Wouldn't this make Russia a party to this theory? As far as I can tell they don't deny harboring Snowden, which if he wasn't actually there hiding from the USG wouldn't they call the US on that?

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