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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

#111

Post by bediger4000 »

rhino369 wrote: post #107
bediger4000 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grant that funding for the War on Terror has taken place. But I also don't think that a real, formal declaration of war has been approved. So, is the USA at war or not? I suspect (but I'm only 52% certain) that we're not at war. The follow-on questions (after "are we at war or not?"): In what state are we? What are the legal ramifications of this half-at-war-state? Why hasn't the US Congress declared war since WW2?…

There is no requirement, either under the Constitution or under laws of war, for any sort of formal declaration. And, there as an "authorization of military force" against al Qaeda and the Taliban. There certainly isn't some magic I DECLARE WAR requirement. > Why hasn't the US Congress declared war since WW2? Is there some consequence to declaring war or not declaring war that they're trying to avoid? Its an outdated…

I seem to recall that we've got laws that make some crimes have a greater penalty during "time of war", which I assume means declared war.

How do you mean "outdated concept"? Are there no more wars? Are their no different legal penalties or obligations during war any more? Because I'm told that the USA has been in wars since 2001 at least. What are the consequences to me, and to my government of outdating an official declaration of war?

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

#113

Post by Fuxy »

clarry wrote: post #104
Fuxy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No obviously not. There's a lot of things you can do to protect you privacy but it all starts with a good choice of OS and hardware. If the foundation is compromised there's no point in anything else you do to protect your privacy. Edit: Yes Arch it's not particularly security conscious I choose to compromise some security to stay on the bleeding edge now that could mean that I get some bad code sometimes but that al…

I'm not trying to bash Arch, but it never looked like a particularly security-conscious or focused distro. To me it looked like it's about being cool and bleeding edge and Gentoo with binary packages... and I have a faint recollection of seeing some rather unimpressive packaging, though that was long time ago. So it runs on i686 and amd64 only. How do you select "good" hardware?

In an ideal world it would be open source hardware where you can review anything from the circuit diagram to the firmware.

However since there's no such thing you will have to choose who you trust.

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

#114

Post by Crito »

cloverich wrote: post #21

Prediction: If this goes on long enough, NSA (and other entities) will accidentally create Skynet.

Drones fly around, listening to cell traffic and logging call data and the position of phones in the middle east (so called "metadata"). These logs are then fed into a computer, which attempts to find relationships between phones. Which phones regularly find themselves in the same location as other phones? Which phones called other phones? The computer is also fed imperfect information that correlates some phones to the identities of alleged 'baddies'.

When phones are found to have close 'relationships' with phones that have at least at one point been used by 'baddies', sometimes the computer decides that the phone must be executed. It prints out an order, which is passed up the line to the President. The President rubber stamps the order. The order goes back down the line and eventually finds it's way back to the computer. The computer, using the before mentioned drones, locates that phone and informs a drone operator. The drone operator then tells the drone to execute that phone, and any people who may happen to be in the area with it. The drone carries out the execution.

Nothing but a bureaucratic skynet.

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

#115

Post by saraid216 »

oskarth wrote: post #17

An implant plug-in named CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE, for example, is used to take over a targeted computer’s microphone and record conversations taking place near the device. Another, GUMFISH, can covertly take over a computer’s webcam and snap photographs. FOGGYBOTTOM records logs of Internet browsing histories and collects login details and passwords used to access websites and email accounts. GROK is used to log keystroke…

Hi. My conspiracy theory is that Satoshi Nakamoto is the NSA.

You're welcome.

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

#116

Post by atmosx »

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…

Seems terrible, but it's only the beginning of the Anglosaxon leadership demise. Historically, empires usually fail from inside...

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

#117

Post by coldtea »

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…

>I, for one, continue to be excited about our drone overlords.

Genuine question: why do hackers and obviously smart persons believe in this cargo-cult "founding fathers" concept? As if some guidelines set by some 18th century guys are the be all end all in running a state or even mean much after centuries of "interpretation" and changing conditions (including technology).

Case in point 1: most of the things people now enjoy, from women's voting to the abolishment of child labor, to work safety laws, to the end of seggregation, were achieved by long, hard, struggles, protests and even martyrs (just like in Europe, for example), and not by some "founding fathers" decree.

Case in point 2: an armed population then was a major counterbalance against a corrupt government, being effective almost at the same level as the government's forces (as evident in tons of revolutions and stuggles around Europe for example). Today? Not so much. So this naive belief on the "right to bear guns" for this purpose is mostly BS cargo-cult.

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

#118

Post by kirubakaran »

lucastx wrote: post #109
tedks wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why God doesn't approve of a networking stack. Wake up, sheeple.

I feel guilty of upvoting a joke on HN. My only comfort is knowing that this one will be buried, and this will be my punishment.

That's a little dramatic, don't you think? :-)

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

#119

Post by oskarth »

saraid216 wrote: post #115
oskarth wrote: post #17

An implant plug-in named CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE, for example, is used to take over a targeted computer’s microphone and record conversations taking place near the device. Another, GUMFISH, can covertly take over a computer’s webcam and snap photographs. FOGGYBOTTOM records logs of Internet browsing histories and collects login details and passwords used to access websites and email accounts. GROK is used to log keystroke…

Hi. My conspiracy theory is that Satoshi Nakamoto is the NSA. You're welcome.

Hi, Michael. Both of us are now in a labelled graph database of identities, were the label signifies how strong the connection is. Right now it's 2/10, but by responding to you it's now 3/10. And if you (yes, you) are reading this comment, assume that you just got a 1/10 label to me [1].

You're welcome.

1: More efficient representations probably exist. Maybe we are all uniquely indexed in some database cluster in Utah. I'd call it BACON-BINLADIN.

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

#120

Post by saraid216 »

mattlutze wrote: post #105
infinity0 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Malware is way more intrusive than wiretapping, it can affect your software. Implanting a chip into your brain to control your thoughts would be the extreme version of it.

"Way more" intrusive doesn't conflict with "extension". It's just a more spirited adjectival phrase. Seems to be that what's described -- fake servers to watch traffic, turning on a mic to listen, turning on a camera to watch -- are all in spirit extensions of an intel agent sitting at an AT&T operator's switch and plugging into a line to listen to a conversation. Particularly that mic one. My contention was simply t…

> My contention was simply that it doesn't track that malware on a computer is anything like a soldier demanding to use someone's home as a bunk house.

I don't disagree, and IANAL, but there is a case to be made here that the spirit of the Third Amendment is to prevent military, or military-esque actors, from commandeering civilian property. On the other hand, in writing that, I realized there is something called commandeering and there are probably interesting relevant cases to go over to find whether or not that has any sense.

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