Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The NSA called me after midnight and requested my source code (2018)

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 219 posts

Re: The NSA called me after midnight and requested my source code (2018)

#161

Post by nemacol »

ta1771 wrote: post #109
nemacol wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no foil on my head, but ... it is very reasonable to be paranoid, right? They are not talking about the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs or the Office of the Comptroller of the currency... It is a comment on the NSA. From what we know, everything they do is a bit creepy. Far from "All government is bad" ... The comment is about an agency that Snowden warned us about. Also, historically speaking t…

> There is no foil on my head, but Good thing, because this would amplify radio frequencies. This trope needs to die.

Would it?

I suppose thinking about it like an antenna, it would aplify. But I would think the bowl shape on my head would reflect my thoughts back into my head. Where a bowl upside-down on my head would act more like a dish to collect external waves.

Pretty sure anyone listening to my thoughts would get bored. Have the gold fishes song stuck in there since the 90's.

I love the fishes 'cause they're so delicious

Gotta go fishin'

I could eat them everyday

And my mom says that's ok

I love the fishes 'cause they're so delicious

Get Goldfishes!

Re: The NSA called me after midnight and requested my source code (2018)

#162

Post by netsharc »

vaguesortof wrote: post #141
lb1lf wrote: post #49

I drew the ire of our security services in a much dumber way sometime in the early nineties; after having seen Wargames, I set up my MicroVAX, rescued from a dumpster at the local bank, to ID as a DoD box whenever any of my friends dialled into it. A few weeks into this, I get a summons to get down to the local police station ASAP. The commissioner then gives me a good verbal beating for being such a stupid kid; appa…

What do you mean 'id as a DOD box'? Do you mean hostname/splash screen/ip .... I'm missing something

Kids these days ;) . Before ssh there was telnet, and a telnet server can write a greeting text before asking for your username (it can even be configured to skip the login and just show you a shell), e.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tno79Q2X-Sg&t=31

In that video it says "User Access Verification", he probably changed his to "Dept. of Defense"...

Re: The NSA called me after midnight and requested my source code (2018)

#164

Post by jessaustin »

Jenz wrote: post #124
lb1lf wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in Norway, so the First Amendment carries little weight around here; our equivalent is 'Article 100' (of the Constitution) stating pretty much the same thing as the First Amendment. (This is hardly relevant; I just grasped the opportunity to stress that the HN crowd resides in the most peculiar places...)

Now, I definitely am biased, being a norwegian myself. But I see people mentioning themselves being norwegians everywhere here on HN. I don’t recall seeing half as many people going around saying, «I’m a dane» or similar; this seems peculiar, Norway is small. I wonder if it actually is at it seems to me, or if I just miss these seemingly non–but—actually-not–non-existant remarks.

I'm not Norwegian, and I think you're right. Perhaps only the French mention their nationality on HN more than the Norwegians.

Although, in fairness, even more common are EU people noting the consequences of EU rules that attempt to govern non-EU websites.

Re: The NSA called me after midnight and requested my source code (2018)

#165

Post by jessaustin »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #64
jessaustin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't post TFA. What NSA are described as doing in TFA (investigating some "dumb criminal") is clearly outside the mission granted them by statute. Furthermore, they so regularly act in contravention of law that there is a commonly-known phrase that describes this activity: "parallel construction". Furthermore, they are lauded rather than criticized in TFA for this unlawful behavior. Furthermore, they regularly pa…

You do realize regardless of resources they had at their disposal, the reason 9/11 happened was because of inter-agency competition and the lack of knowledge sharing between said agencies? This is the primary reason the Department of Homeland Security was created in the first place.

I'm not nearly as certain as you seem to be, about any of the claims you make here.

I remember the debate about creating "Homeland Security". (Starting with the neo-Nazi name...) No one with any management experience, including Bush the Lesser, thought it was a good idea. Organizations that have lost their way due to bureaucratic bullshit are not made more effective by more layers of bureaucratic bullshit. Congress was convinced, however, and W's handlers didn't want to "waste" political capital preventing an obvious disaster. Before this debacle, FEMA had been an effective organization (that incidentally had nothing to do with "security"), largely due to its relative independence from the rest of the executive branch. After this debacle, Hurricane Katrina happened. Everybody agreed to blame the hapless "heck of a job" guy because they hoped we stupid voters would forget when they torpedoed the agency two years before the storm.

Why are we supposed to believe that "inter-agency competition" was the cause of 9/11? The guy who did it, ObL, claimed it was in response to USA military presence on the Peninsula. Why don't we blame that? If we don't blame our stupid military decisions, why not blame the intelligence community for not noticing potential consequences of those stupid decisions, a single decade after they didn't predict the most important thing that ever happened with respect to their "mission"? The unsupervised services are just like the military, in this respect: WWII was a long time ago, and they've never once been judged on their performance since that time. (JFK tried to hold them to a standard, but not for long...) All they have to do is spend money, and at that they excel. 9/11 itself helped them spend a great deal more than they ever had before.

Anyway, even the goofs at NSA could have figured it out in time, if they hadn't just axed ThinThread in favor of Trailblazer. That was a human lapse in judgment that could have taken place at any bureaucratic level. When they make a similar mistake in the next decade, the interference of "Homeland Security" won't have done a thing to prevent it.

Re: The NSA called me after midnight and requested my source code (2018)

#167

Post by mesozoic »

remcob wrote: post #139
MR4D wrote: post #47

If you read the article (you should - it's a good one and well written), then you should also read the comments. My favorite nugget from the comments: "I hope you’re keeping that mug in an opaque Faraday cage, well grounded."

I know it's a joke but: Mugs have a tendency to be put in microwaves, making them a dangerous place for electronics. If you find yourself receiving a questionable mug, time for a glass of warm milk.

Surely the listening device was just installed in the house by the delivery person.

Re: The NSA called me after midnight and requested my source code (2018)

#169

Post by Hnrobert42 »

pixxel wrote: post #7
superhuzza wrote: post #2

Certainly doesn't make me want to use any software made by this guy.

This was pre 9/11 too, so he didn’t hesitate to hand over the source code based on any sense of patriotism.

There were patriots before 9/11.

Re: The NSA called me after midnight and requested my source code (2018)

#170

Post by Hnrobert42 »

rcoveson wrote: post #125
marcus_holmes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? I mean, if the cops turned up at your door with a search warrant, you'd let them in, right?

If I ran an neighborhood ISP, and the cops asked me to spy on a neighbor (for reasons they wouldn't even provide), then I'd shut down first. If they just wanted to search _my_ stuff, sure. But if the only reason that I'm even capable of assisting the government in spying on somebody is that they are my customer, neighbor, friend, or user then I will not offer that assistance. That would be evil. Don't be evil.

Supporting the government in lawful operations is not evil. There are many, many examples of the abuse of power by the government. But at least in the US, there is a system of checks and balances including freedom of the press and an independent judiciary.

If we give up faith in those things then we will succumb to a lawless, might-makes-right society. What makes you think you know better than the duly elected and appointed representatives of the people? Ok, fine. Tell it to a judge. But if you lose, then comply.

TL;DR: I don’t like “the man” either, but in the end, the man is us. We thwart him at our peril.

Post reply on HN