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How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

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Re: How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

#71

Post by neverminder »

bananas wrote: post #13
r0h1n wrote: post #5

After a while all these news items about the NSA and GCHQ can seem a bit too much, but not if we take a step back and really understand the enormity of it all. The NSA and its cohorts set up fake Facebook websites, spoof security certificates, secretly record webcam streams, vacuum up everything they can lay their hands on etc. Meanwhile the CIA coolly wipes hundreds of documents from the machines of those who are in…

Yes it's called a revolution at which point we storm the bases and burn the data centres and monitoring stations to the ground. But, as Huxley was so keen to point out, that's not going to happen when people are staring at Honey Boo Boo and Hollyoaks.

Everything is how it is because that's how it's supposed to be. It's the old "Dragon is dead, long live the Dragon" phenomena. It's because of human weaknesses - greed, lust for power, etc. Whatever we do it will always come full circle. And then it will begin again.

Re: How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

#72

Post by motters »

r0h1n wrote: post #5

After a while all these news items about the NSA and GCHQ can seem a bit too much, but not if we take a step back and really understand the enormity of it all. The NSA and its cohorts set up fake Facebook websites, spoof security certificates, secretly record webcam streams, vacuum up everything they can lay their hands on etc. Meanwhile the CIA coolly wipes hundreds of documents from the machines of those who are in…

Yes. All of that usually happens when totalitarian regimes fall. These systems are made and run by people, so they can be remade or disbanded if they are no longer wanted.

For now it's probably useful to concentrate upon emphasising how illegal/unconstitutional all of the above activity is and that the buck has to stop somewhere. Someone has to be held accountable.

Re: How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

#74

Post by CodeMage »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #24
bananas wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more complicated than that. ----->[ good times ]---->[ hard times ] ---> [fascism] --\ ^ | \-------------------[revolution] Revolution merely starts the cycle again. We'll always end up with the KGB, Stasi, NSA, GCHQ, CIA etc so you have to deconstruct society regularly to flush it out. We're stuck in a pretty long loop at the moment just verging on hard times. Edit: the "good times" above is optional.

Luckily, our founding fathers built in a way to achieve the same effects as a revolution without any violence. If you were to start an armed insurrection, the government would be totally justified in ending you. Not a smart decision given today's level of technology. It was through sheer luck that the American revolution worked at all: the British commanders were so incredibly incompetent that they checkmated themsel…

Hasn't there been enough evidence that the system the founding fathers built in has been compromised to the point of irrelevance?

What you have today is an illusion of the freedom and the "equal and impartial justice under the law".

http://www.popehat.com/2013/12/23/burn-the-fucking-system-to...

Re: How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

#76

Post by ds9 »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #34
bananas wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly, your "founding fathers" - ha now there's a joke. Do you think anyone respects those amendments? Nope. If they thought that, you wouldn't be stocked up with weapons. And we all know how effective that technology is at ending all those pesky terrorists with their zip guns and IEDs...

And we all know how effective that technology is at ending all those pesky terrorists with their zip guns and IEDs... Those people have been indoctrinated since birth to see us as evil invaders. Some of their religions have baked in the idea that it's good to die in order to kill invaders. And we've sometimes acted like an evil invader. (See Blackwater atrocities, etc.) It's an invalid comparison because our populati…

"Those people have been indoctrinated since birth to see us as evil invaders ... our population isn't motivated in the same way"

It doesn't take religion or "indoctrination since birth" for people to see an invading army as evil - it just takes an invasion.

If your country were occupied by foreign armies, you might want to fight back too - or at least you shouldn't be surprised if others do.

Re: How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

#77

Post by lern_too_spel »

r0h1n wrote: post #5

After a while all these news items about the NSA and GCHQ can seem a bit too much, but not if we take a step back and really understand the enormity of it all. The NSA and its cohorts set up fake Facebook websites, spoof security certificates, secretly record webcam streams, vacuum up everything they can lay their hands on etc. Meanwhile the CIA coolly wipes hundreds of documents from the machines of those who are in…

Don't be so melodramatic. There are solutions.

Also, they don't "vacuum up everything they can lay their hands on." According to this article, they exploit on the order of tens of thousands of systems and have a control system to pull data and recordings from targeted users.

Re: How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

#78

Post by work_account_2 »

bananas wrote: post #13
r0h1n wrote: post #5

After a while all these news items about the NSA and GCHQ can seem a bit too much, but not if we take a step back and really understand the enormity of it all. The NSA and its cohorts set up fake Facebook websites, spoof security certificates, secretly record webcam streams, vacuum up everything they can lay their hands on etc. Meanwhile the CIA coolly wipes hundreds of documents from the machines of those who are in…

Yes it's called a revolution at which point we storm the bases and burn the data centres and monitoring stations to the ground. But, as Huxley was so keen to point out, that's not going to happen when people are staring at Honey Boo Boo and Hollyoaks.

Or posting on HN and Reddit.

Re: How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

#79

Post by lern_too_spel »

logn wrote: post #44

The NSA, breaking into US computers, is violating the Third Amendment, in my opinion. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Where in the article did it say they were breaking into US computers? What's described in the article isn't as obviously illegal as that.

Re: How the NSA Plans to Infect “Millions” of Computers with Malware

#80

Post by clarry »

Fuxy wrote: post #46
computer wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the only thing the NSA has to do is hack/convince/rendition/break-into-house a single person who holds a package signing key, and then they can MITM your pacman updater and have you as well. And there's enough people with such a key to choose from: https://www.archlinux.org/master-keys/ . (I run Arch as well, but I have no such illusions of security.)

As i said not impossible but at least we're not giving the NSA information about vulnerabilities months in advance of us fixing it. Where there's a will there's a way especially if you have billions of dollars in funding and the freedom to do so i just aim to make it as difficult as possible.

Is running Linux all you can do to make it as difficult as possible?
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