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US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

bloomberg.com

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Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#191

Post by manoDev »

exe34 wrote: post #55
Forgeties79 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The new US policy under Trump is giving up trying to win the world and instead focusing on internal market and dominance over the American continent. Is that why he bombed Iran and single-handedly caused a global energy crisis? A shift of focus to “dominance of the American continent”?

He's just doing his best to make everybody switch to renewables!

Unfortunately this slows down adoption of renewables even more, China produces most of world’s renewables and batteries but bootstraps this industry with oil.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#192

Post by tough »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #116
01100011 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In some cases, they suffer from insomnia, memory loss, rumination and physical illness, So, like most middle-aged desk jockeys then? > “There’s always a crisis and everything’s always a priority,” said Schoka. “We would burn people out faster than we could produce them.” Sounds a lot like my job...

> > In some cases, they suffer from insomnia, memory loss, rumination and physical illness, > So, like most middle-aged desk jockeys then? Is this really so common? I'm 38 and had some medical issues this past year, but one of the big things I've been grappling with is severe brain fog and memory loss. I could not tell you any of the projects I worked on in my previous three years, honestly. Maybe longer. It's been p…

I like to think the brain is doing its work and just trashing info it doesnt need and making space for new info when i forget stuff... I guess if it was truly important i'd be worried, but work stuff usually isnt important once its done, emotional/personal stuff would be more worrisome, like alzheimer and others, but work stuff? Im happy to forget it if its done lol

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#193

Post by senderista »

kstrauser wrote: post #151
YesThatTom2 wrote: post #11

I suspect the Cold War of cyber warfare that is happening is orders of magnitude bigger than the public knows. Imagine knowing this and not being able to get emotional support from your friends and family.

This was a big thing for drone people based out of Eppley AFB in Omaha. Wake up, drive to work, attack enemies, drive home, sit there eating dinner with your family trying to pretend you didn’t kill someone and can’t talk about it. Combat troops get to lean on each other after a firefight: “dude, good shot. That guy was about to get us!” You get validation that you did something to safe you and your friends, and it’s…

I feel more compassion for the innocent people they killed and it's not even close.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#194

Post by polotics »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #103

I have always wondered how the Ukrainian FPV drone operators cope - some of footage is pretty gruesome - esp when the drone chases some hapless Russian running away before zeroing in and then blowing him up. Some even shows double tap mortar rounds being dropped on Russians and then gravely wounded they drop another one to finish them off.

The operators know they are in danger themselves, most notably from gliding bombs on their bunkers, so it's a clear him-or-me, makes things simpler. Also: Bucha.

ps. do you to watch all these videos? how is it affecting you?

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#195

Post by anonymousiam »

yndoendo wrote: post #99
lesuorac wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody here is all so small minded. The government has spent centuries doing spycraft and has a budget in the billions.

When you know you can't kill the message, kill the messenger. This is the tactic used when journalist Gary Webb started reporting on the USA involvement with selling crack to Americans so they could fund Contra insurgents in Nicaragua. They did this so well that other news organizations turned on the journalist. I could easily imagine the USA not wanting to patch holes so they have access to the systems and these exp…

The US agency that we entrust with evaluating and recommending our encryption standards is the same one (albeit a different branch) that focuses on breaking encryption. There is an obvious conflict of interest with this arrangement.

Many examples of deliberate weakening are documented, especially with the "export approved" stuff that we sell to our allies.

This problem goes beyond just encryption, and also involves deliberate data leaking (with plausible deniability).

So yes, you don't need to imagine it at all -- the NSA works to create and maintain access to "everything everywhere."

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#196

Post by rdtsc »

MarkMarine wrote: post #188
kstrauser wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a big thing for drone people based out of Eppley AFB in Omaha. Wake up, drive to work, attack enemies, drive home, sit there eating dinner with your family trying to pretend you didn’t kill someone and can’t talk about it. Combat troops get to lean on each other after a firefight: “dude, good shot. That guy was about to get us!” You get validation that you did something to safe you and your friends, and it’s…

Can’t speak for others but the most damaging part of direct combat is watching people that you consider to be family die or be maimed.

> the most damaging part of direct combat is watching people that you consider to be family die or be maimed.

I've heard from various places over the years (documentaries, friends) that soldiers really fight for their comrades at the end of the day. As in when asked "why are you here fighting" if they are in front of a news crews or something where they have to say "we're bringing democracy to ..." they'll just say something like "those fuckers blew my buddy up and I am here to pay them back".

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#197

Post by gliall_err »

sph wrote: post #164
markus_zhang wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This thing probably never stops and doesn’t have holidays. I read about Operation Gladio back in the day, which was not a cyber operation, but a preparation of guerrilla operations in case the WP occupied EU. But I got the feeling that the war in darkness (cyber is part of it) is non-stop.

WP = Warsaw Pact. Took me a while to decipher, but I get that bytes are expensive these days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

[dead]

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#198

Post by Barrin92 »

Loquebantur wrote: post #174
kstrauser wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a big thing for drone people based out of Eppley AFB in Omaha. Wake up, drive to work, attack enemies, drive home, sit there eating dinner with your family trying to pretend you didn’t kill someone and can’t talk about it. Combat troops get to lean on each other after a firefight: “dude, good shot. That guy was about to get us!” You get validation that you did something to safe you and your friends, and it’s…

https://archive.ph/W2tpE > One of the dead was Technical Sergeant Kevin Stallings, a digital network intelligence analyst whose family told Bloomberg they wanted him to be identified to bring greater attention to the suicides. Stallings was stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, Cyber Command’s headquarters. He took his own life the month before he’d have turned 37. These people aren't "drone operators", they worked for…

>The concentration of deaths is entirely implausibly described as "suicides",

The article talks about 19 people. Given the size of those organizations that's statistically elevated but too small a number to descend into conspiracy theories. As the article points out they apparently had internal warnings and studies about lack of mental support for people in signals intelligence and cyber related roles.

Given that this cluster of deaths seems to have happened in June/July, the Iran war and how the American government has conducted itself I don't find it surprising there's elevated numbers of suicides. You don't need to be on the frontline, if you're in sigint and involved in that attack on the school that casually blew up 150 girls and probably the stuff we don't know about I wouldn't be surprised people off themselves.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#199

Post by OsrsNeedsf2P »

senderista wrote: post #193
kstrauser wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a big thing for drone people based out of Eppley AFB in Omaha. Wake up, drive to work, attack enemies, drive home, sit there eating dinner with your family trying to pretend you didn’t kill someone and can’t talk about it. Combat troops get to lean on each other after a firefight: “dude, good shot. That guy was about to get us!” You get validation that you did something to safe you and your friends, and it’s…

I feel more compassion for the innocent people they killed and it's not even close.

[flagged]

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#200

Post by MarkMarine »

rdtsc wrote: post #196
MarkMarine wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can’t speak for others but the most damaging part of direct combat is watching people that you consider to be family die or be maimed.

> the most damaging part of direct combat is watching people that you consider to be family die or be maimed. I've heard from various places over the years (documentaries, friends) that soldiers really fight for their comrades at the end of the day. As in when asked "why are you here fighting" if they are in front of a news crews or something where they have to say "we're bringing democracy to ..." they'll just say s…

No one runs into machine gun fire to bring democracy to someone else I can assure you of that.
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