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

Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

c-spanvideo.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 102 posts

Re: Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

#71

Post by nullc »

bilbo0s wrote: post #64
rdl wrote: post #60

I guess I intellectually knew, but didn't fully appreciate, just how old all of those people are. Working in Silicon Valley, I'm used to seeing 20-45 year olds in lots of useful roles. Everyone in that room seemed to be late-40s or older (the military people were the youngest).

Well... No offense... but I wouldn't want the younger crowd sitting around deciding when to launch a nuke. It's fine to put us in charge of the "like" buttons, Farmville tractors, or a web pages like Yahoo or Facebook. But some things are a bit more important. It's fine to have younger aids or advisers. Probably good to have youthful energy INFORM certain decisions. Not so sure it's a good idea, however, to have yout…

There is also a difference between not having younger people (like, ahem, '30') in charge vs not even having them as part of the discussion at all. Experience has value, so does a diversity of backgrounds.

Re: Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

#72

Post by rdl »

The depressing thing is Durbin wasn't smart enough to articulate it, but when he tried to ask "do you collect metadata or other data about non-telephone communications", GEN Alexander did a great job of misdirecting to being about court orders and getting access to a specific individual's information.

Knowing if metadata is collected broadly, and what metadata is collected, is key. There's probably no chance of that in unclassified congressional hearings; only via leaks.

We know they collect credit cards and some other records (air travel and customs/immigration for sure, and probably hotels and DMV and other government records, what else).

Re: Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

#73

Post by btbuilder »

jsonne wrote: post #28
whiddershins wrote: post #19

Oh, this is awesome: Keith Alexander explaining how what we really should do is let the NSA have a database that stores absolutely everything, and then they promise only to search through it when it is "reasonable."

See, I'm personally of the same opinion. I couldn't figure it out, but then it hit me. It's the same line of logic that the military uses in their security clearances. Back in the day I used to work for a JAG lawyer, and have several friends that are/were in the military. So I do have some knowledge of the matter. The way they do things is this. There's clearance and then there's need to know. So for instance one of…

This is pretty basic stuff for those in the security industry. Read about mandatory access control if you are more familiar with discretionary access control (what happens in most off-the-shelf operating systems) as an interesting example of how things are done differently.

Access control is one thing but:

1) How can we guarantee that the control cannot be bypassed when everything is secret? 2) How can we guarantee that someone with clearance is not selling information to criminals?

Re: Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

#74

Post by rdl »

Oregon's senators are far better than I reasonably would have expected. Watch Senator Merkley question at 1:21 "exactly how did you get from these restrictions to collecting EVERYTHING, including my god-damn cellphone right here" (or something more polite, possibly). GEN Alexander decides to defer to the Feinstein classified hearing; i.e. not answering, by saying, "let me make sure I get this exactly right, because it is a complex area."

Re: Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

#75

Post by willurd »

betterunix wrote: post #70
willurd wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. They are all reading from scripts. "This is something that we take looks down at script very seriously." Also, it appears that they were all privy to what each other was going to say before the hearing. " looks down at script As you said ..." Does that disturb anyone else?

It is already known that the NSA chief received the questions Sen. Wyden planned to ask him in advance , to give him time to prepare a response, a few months ago. This is said as if it is business as usual (and used to paint him in a worse light, since he lied before Congress after being given time to plan his answers), and I have no reason to think it is not. Yet another reason to vote third party.

I had a little trouble parsing your first paragraph. But vote third party? Now you're speaking my language :)

Re: Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

#76

Post by fungi »

pvnick wrote: post #44
sliverstorm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about cybernouns? Do we have those yet?

Cyberhope, cyberchange, etc

im !american so really not backing hope and change here... but should not you/we be directing our vitriol in a bipartisan fashion?

with regards to the mass expansion of surveillance, shit seems pretty fucked up across the political divide.

Re: Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

#77

Post by ceejayoz »

eightyone wrote: post #7

In this hearing there has been so much smearing in reguards to Snowden's educational background. There are plenty of smart people who didn't graduate from high school.

Plus, Congress serves as evidence that you can have plenty of college graduates who are complete morons.

Re: Live on C-SPAN now: NSA Chief Testifies at Cybersecurity Hearing

#80

Post by WalterSear »

bilbo0s wrote: post #64
rdl wrote: post #60

I guess I intellectually knew, but didn't fully appreciate, just how old all of those people are. Working in Silicon Valley, I'm used to seeing 20-45 year olds in lots of useful roles. Everyone in that room seemed to be late-40s or older (the military people were the youngest).

Well... No offense... but I wouldn't want the younger crowd sitting around deciding when to launch a nuke. It's fine to put us in charge of the "like" buttons, Farmville tractors, or a web pages like Yahoo or Facebook. But some things are a bit more important. It's fine to have younger aids or advisers. Probably good to have youthful energy INFORM certain decisions. Not so sure it's a good idea, however, to have yout…

Having the old farts make all the decisions about technology is what got us into this situation in the first place.
Post reply on HN