Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete' • Hacker News Board

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#21

Post by fnordfnordfnord » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:04 PM UTC

thaumaturgy wrote: post #6

This is a pretty embarrassing piece; it reads like something you'd find on a conspiracy forum. 1. Keyboards don't beep. 2. There are lots of more reasonable explanations for text getting deleted than "state agency wanted to play a juvenile prank on me and be glaringly obvious about it". A stuck key, an intermittent short across some of the leads caused by the coffee he spilled all over his keyboard (conjecture on my…

>This is a pretty embarrassing piece; it reads like something you'd find on a conspiracy forum.

1. The guy doesn't seem like a computer expert. Don't dismiss his speculation merely because he's unable to explain what he observed as an engineer or programmer would.

2. There are always lots of more reasonable explanations for any suspicious activity than spying. This will be true for almost every case of actual spying that isn't unambiguously discovered.

4. The fact that one possibility is more likely does not disprove the possibility that it was the other. Do you really believe that every gov't agent is above a juvenile prank, or that none are buffoons? Or perhaps it wasn't a gov't agent but some other person.

5. Hotel safes are universally crappy and usually have a default master password that is known to criminals, and spies. I'll assume there are other ways to break into them as well.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#22

Post by specialist » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:06 PM UTC

vacri wrote: post #20

Why on earth would a malicious party manually delete characters while the author is watching? If you don't care about being observed - as the author suggests - then in order to destroy his work, you'd just delete the truecrypt partition.

We used to do this for giggles. PC-Anywhere era.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#23

Post by fnordfnordfnord » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:07 PM UTC

skwirl wrote: post #10

mixmax wrote: post #4

The cursor moved rapidly from the left, gobbling text. I watched my words vanish. When I tried to close my OpenOffice file the keyboard began flashing and bleeping. To me and Occams razor that sounds more like a stuck key than the NSA openly deleting stuff in a manuscript while you're writing it.

To me it sounds like bullshit being invented by a reporter trying to spice up a story.

It sounds so crazy, the guy has more to lose by printing it (and having people think he's a loon).

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#24

Post by fnordfnordfnord » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:13 PM UTC

Robelius wrote: post #13

poopsintub wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows beeps when you're pressing keys at the same time or just holding them down. I don't know the exact situations but I remember a "hot keys" notification popping up. Let's consider the article is true and words were being deleted as he wrote them. How ridiculous is that? A. disconnect from the internet. B. The whole manuscript could be deleted with a few keystrokes if wanted. Why would someone sit there and dele…

The Windows beep is usually from a speaker connected to your motherboard. There is no speaker located on the majority of keyboards, meaning no beeps. It's not ridiculous to think words would begin to get deleted, but it is ridiculous to say some government organization would sit there and watch him type to remove some content. Why would any organization spying on him make it so obvious, and pointless. If he wanted to…

I'm pretty sure the government is watching your computer (internet traffic, and maybe your webcam). They probably don't have you targeted for surveillance by an agent, which is what I think you meant.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#25

Post by yrochat » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:23 PM UTC

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #21

thaumaturgy wrote: post #6

This is a pretty embarrassing piece; it reads like something you'd find on a conspiracy forum. 1. Keyboards don't beep. 2. There are lots of more reasonable explanations for text getting deleted than "state agency wanted to play a juvenile prank on me and be glaringly obvious about it". A stuck key, an intermittent short across some of the leads caused by the coffee he spilled all over his keyboard (conjecture on my…

>This is a pretty embarrassing piece; it reads like something you'd find on a conspiracy forum. 1. The guy doesn't seem like a computer expert. Don't dismiss his speculation merely because he's unable to explain what he observed as an engineer or programmer would. 2. There are always lots of more reasonable explanations for any suspicious activity than spying. This will be true for almost every case of actual spying…

Looks like someone deleted number 3.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#26

Post by oceanstone » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:37 PM UTC

vinceguidry wrote: post #18

mpyne wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More to the point, "keyboards flashing and beeping" is pretty much the polar opposite of what a professional organization like NSA would do. They would shred/unlink the file after its closed so that you'd never be the wiser. But on the other hand, they wouldn't be in this guy's computer anyways because even if NSA were out to oppress him, he's pretty far back at the end of the ol' pri. queue. "Oh, no, not a manuscrip…

It actually sounds a lot more like a CIA intimidation tactic.

If this were an operation, it'd be more likely to be GCHQ. Keep in mind, GCHQ sent the NSA the Yahoo webcam photos, for use in XKEYSCORE. The two are close allies.

The CIA on the other hand, competes with the NSA for resources and jurisdiction.

Right now the NSA's budget dwarfs that of the CIA, since data collection and SIGINT have been prioritized over HUMINT. Technology advances and cost reductions might have encouraged this.

What types of intelligence and which agencies will be more relevant in the 21st century? The Snowden revelations and ongoing saga will play a large part in affecting future views, and answers to that question.

It might be more beneficial for the CIA to actually step back.

Plus, a lot of people want to see mass surveillance fail. It's pretty obviously a threat to democracy waiting to happen, and most people in service are dedicating their life to protecting democracy.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#27

Post by superpatosainz » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:37 PM UTC

This is exactly the time when you'd want to write about such a topic in pen and paper.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#28

Post by vinceguidry » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:52 PM UTC

oceanstone wrote: post #26

vinceguidry wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It actually sounds a lot more like a CIA intimidation tactic.

If this were an operation, it'd be more likely to be GCHQ. Keep in mind, GCHQ sent the NSA the Yahoo webcam photos, for use in XKEYSCORE. The two are close allies. The CIA on the other hand, competes with the NSA for resources and jurisdiction. Right now the NSA's budget dwarfs that of the CIA, since data collection and SIGINT have been prioritized over HUMINT. Technology advances and cost reductions might have encou…

Except that the CIA does have an office in Rio, whose station chief is known for these kinds of tactics, as is written in the article.

I think also you're overstating how much the CIA might be competing with the NSA. Sure, at the highest levels, this might be true, but in the trenches, operatives share everything. I doubt anyone in the CIA truly resents the NSA and they'd happily help each other out like this.

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#29

Post by oceanstone » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:52 PM UTC

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #24

Robelius wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Windows beep is usually from a speaker connected to your motherboard. There is no speaker located on the majority of keyboards, meaning no beeps. It's not ridiculous to think words would begin to get deleted, but it is ridiculous to say some government organization would sit there and watch him type to remove some content. Why would any organization spying on him make it so obvious, and pointless. If he wanted to…

I'm pretty sure the government is watching your computer (internet traffic, and maybe your webcam). They probably don't have you targeted for surveillance by an agent, which is what I think you meant.

We haven't yet been marketed a reason to constantly steam our webcams to the cloud. For this reason remote activation would be required in many cases, and that would be expensive on a mass scale.

Steps toward cloud services like this might include the Kinect, or face recognition login services. We'll see how it plays out. :^)

Re: Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'

#30

Post by lupinglade » Sun, Mar 02, 2014, 9:53 PM UTC

Wow. Yeah, generally that's the US people's image of the US government in a nutshell. Conspiracy theories are getting old, old, old. Being overly suspicious is not productive in any way. Wake up and help your country be successful.