31–40 of 420 posts
I can understand using unencrypted network within a data center (unless you are doubly paranoid), but why wouldn't they encrypt data between data centers?
This has been asked before, but I'd love to hear from a dev (anonymously of course) who actually helped build this NSA madness. Is it like The Cube, where no one really knew what each piece was for? Is it that they are morally pro the NSA's attitude toward personal and corporate privacy, or do they just not care either way?
In The Shadow Factory (written after the Klein leaks but before Snowden), Bamford notes that a lot of surveillance equipment comes from Israel. I don't know much about Israeli culture but it may be significantly different from the US.
His reply: "Dude, all this shit comes out of Israel! its the whole tech/NSA bullshit used against the palestinians!"
It was a casual comment - but very interesting in that its a foregone conclusion that the surveillance state is just a function of the culture of Israeli tech development.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do people assume the Chinese government is not able to use similar techniques?
I would assume they use similar techniques within China and perhaps allied countries like North Korea and Cuba, but the US is performing wiretapping in at least the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Also, how much non-Chinese Internet traffic passes through China?
Nobody is more distrusting of each other than two communist countries.
The NSA must have somebody working on the inside at google. Otherwise it would be extremely difficult to reverse engineer the RPC protocol that was used by google's servers to communicate between each other. Even on an unencrypted network I can image it would be very difficult to reverse engineer the protocol without any help.
Or, they could have just hired an ex-Googler familiar with the protocol. No need for someone working for the NSA "on the inside" at Google, and no need for reverse engineering.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/04...
I know how hard it would be, I implement low level protocols (not Google's or of men in black).
Either way, this is a good stimulus for rolling out deeper encryption.
Wow, a guy working for Google said "fuck you" to the NSA. All my doubts and worries are gone now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
More importantly, whats the difference between Chinese and American government when it comes to privacy?
The terrible things the Chinese government does aren't being done to you.
Wasn't there a Google break in not so long ago?
The NSA must have somebody working on the inside at google. Otherwise it would be extremely difficult to reverse engineer the RPC protocol that was used by google's servers to communicate between each other. Even on an unencrypted network I can image it would be very difficult to reverse engineer the protocol without any help.
The RPC protocol is stated to be based on protocol buffers so the encoding is known. What you would need to do to reverse engineer it is coming up with matching message descriptions. But, even without that piece of the puzzle, reverse engineering a protocol that doesn't use encryption wouldn't be "extremely difficult". This is not an indication of an inside man. https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/ove…
This has been asked before, but I'd love to hear from a dev (anonymously of course) who actually helped build this NSA madness. Is it like The Cube, where no one really knew what each piece was for? Is it that they are morally pro the NSA's attitude toward personal and corporate privacy, or do they just not care either way?
In The Shadow Factory (written after the Klein leaks but before Snowden), Bamford notes that a lot of surveillance equipment comes from Israel. I don't know much about Israeli culture but it may be significantly different from the US.