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Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

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Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#311

Post by ajross »

rsync wrote: post #293
kllrnohj wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lets start from the beginning: the NSA "hack" became possible because Google (and its security team) made bad assumptions about the security of the connection between Google's data centers and did not encrypt the traffic. The assumption isn't bad - it's a private network line, not a public internet connection. Nobody else had access to that line, at least they weren't supposed to. Splicing a fiber line is a bit out…

"The assumption isn't bad - it's a private network line, not a public internet connection. Nobody else had access to that line, at least they weren't supposed to." You don't use telnet when you access your home server(s) from your laptop ... that's basically what they were doing. They skipped over a zero-cost, obvious best practice, and I think we should be suspicious. Either they've run that part of their network in…

No, it's not. Telnet sends packets in the clear over many networks controlled directly by third parties and accessible to them as an inherent part of operating their business.

This was a point-to-point cable. The only access possible was physical, by digging it up and splicing it.

Obviously that attack was possible, but arguing that this is somehow "the same kind of attack" as running tcpdump on a router to sniff packets is just insane, sorry.

Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#312

Post by Raphmedia »

ismail wrote: post #168

'Privacy' currently is just a facade, most people have just not realised that. Here is an interesting fact, that joe public do not realise. If you have a mobile phone, you can be tracked, even if there is no GPS on the device. Besides this if the NSA chooses, they can track practically ANYONE in the world, all they need is a mobile number. I would not be surprised if this is actually one of the tools they have. How?…

I don't have a mobile phone.

You don't need one, really. Skype at work, landline at home. Why would I want to talk to anyone on the go?

I go out for beers and other social activities all the time. My social life is not suffering at all. The need of having a cellphone is a lie.

Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#313

Post by smsm42 »

zorked wrote: post #240
untog wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's the core of the problem. By the nature of what they do, their successes are never clear. Not that this is a very robust intellectual defense, but the US is far from the only country to do this. Just two days ago the NYT had an article about Brazil spying on Americans within its borders: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/world/americas/brazil-ackn... If we shut down the NSA tomorrow we would be an an intern…

Can we please try not to equate a diplomat's car being followed around a city's public areas with the indiscriminate collection of private communications from every man, woman and child on the planet? Look, my eyes are open. I'm spying on you. Everybody spies!

Difference in quantity turns into difference in quality sometimes. It is stupid to disallow taking pictures on public streets. It is not stupid to say to the government "you should not film everything on public streets 24/7 and keep it for years, because we don't want you to". Citizens are owners of the government and can set rules of what it is allowed to do.

Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#314

Post by ajross »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #93
nodata wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Erm, what? Which law did they break, and which civil rights did they violate?

Like indiscriminately and illegally sucking up WiFi data with their street view mobiles? Including account information and passwords on unsecured WiFi connections. Even if the accusation of "violating laws" may be a tad hyperbolic in the great scheme of things it's not a stretch to deem Google one of the most hypocritical companies around.

Sniffing unencrypted wifi packets and (apparently accidentally) storing them is just as bad as deliberately breaking into someone else's network to steal data? Come on.

I remain amazed at the ability of people to project their own biases (Google is Evil in this case, probably via extrapolation from Apple is Insanely Great) onto things that one would hope would be objective moral points (spy agencies shouldn't be attacking the networks of non-enemies!).

Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#315

Post by rza »

adestefan wrote: post #180
xradionut wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? Voting and protesting haven't worked so far.

Just because people don't vote the way you want them to doesn't mean it's not working.

Voting is not working. As far as the media is concerned, there are always going to be only two candidates, both of which are in bed with corporate lobbyists. Without every voter doing significant research on their own to make meaningful third-party voting blocs, that will not change. Money determines the primary candidates, and that money comes from the same places year after year.

Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#316

Post by largehotcoffee »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #276
tokenadult wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is a much more hostile state actor in how it would use any information it gathers up, especially to a free-enterprise company like Google.

That's quite a claim. Right now the NSA holds privileged information for millions of Americans. What happens if one of those people becomes some populist political entity. It would be trivial for the NSA to leak dirt of any kind (sexual fetishes, hangups, private emails to wife, other private things that when taken to the public would look bad, trash talking others, etc) to help discredit this person. Imagine that th…

That's quite a claim.

Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#317

Post by dragonwriter »

rza wrote: post #315
adestefan wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because people don't vote the way you want them to doesn't mean it's not working.

Voting is not working. As far as the media is concerned, there are always going to be only two candidates, both of which are in bed with corporate lobbyists. Without every voter doing significant research on their own to make meaningful third-party voting blocs, that will not change. Money determines the primary candidates, and that money comes from the same places year after year.

The fundamental problem is not the media (for all the problems the media has and produces), it is the electoral system, as is demonstrated by the comparison with the greater number of competitive parties in all the democracies that also have profit-oriented corporate media but do not a national legislature elected by plurality or majority/runoff elections.

Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#318

Post by bas »

lsh123 wrote: post #52

Lets start from the beginning: the NSA "hack" became possible because Google (and its security team) made bad assumptions about the security of the connection between Google's data centers and did not encrypt the traffic. Basically, this is security 101: protect data at rest and protect data in flight. So, sorry but I think the better subject for discussion would be how badly Google screwed up, not how evil is NSA. M…

The moral of the story is that there is always a bigger fish.

Re: Google Security Team Member on NSA: "Fuck These Guys"

#320

Post by lsh123 »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #231
dingaling wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And no other company with multiple data centers encrypts all traffic between them, right? Indeed they do! From personal experience, Cisco was hawking its TrustSec inter-DC encryption solution five or six years ago, even over dark fibre.

Google's inter-dc links are way too big for any appliance type of thing to encrypt. Like most things at Google the scale of their network is incomprehensible to most people.

In addition to the numbers already posted, you can remember that Google decided to add encryption to the data links in September.
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