How is this whistleblowing? What benefit do we as the public gain from this knowledge?
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New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
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Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#12There was a long interview with Snowden posted recently, which didn't make it to the frontpage. I guess because of Snowden penalty on HN and Snowden fatigue. Anyway, he kept repeating a point which is quite easy to understand for the public I think. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8859606 And the reality is when it comes to cyber conflicts [...], we have more to lose. We spend more on research and development th…
There's no reason to pick Offense vs. Defense any more than there is Social Security vs. Education. It's just a question of budgeting. Why wouldn't we invest in both?
Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#13How is this whistleblowing? What benefit do we as the public gain from this knowledge?
This hurts everybody in the world. Americans too.
Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#14How should NSA spying figure into the public's view of Obama's efforts to help municipalities build out competitively priced broadband networks?
Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#15There was a long interview with Snowden posted recently, which didn't make it to the frontpage. I guess because of Snowden penalty on HN and Snowden fatigue. Anyway, he kept repeating a point which is quite easy to understand for the public I think. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8859606 And the reality is when it comes to cyber conflicts [...], we have more to lose. We spend more on research and development th…
There's no reason to pick Offense vs. Defense any more than there is Social Security vs. Education. It's just a question of budgeting. Why wouldn't we invest in both?
If offense includes things like trying to ban or secretly weaken defensive measures like encryption, then that doesn't work out so nicely.
Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#16To be fair here, the NSA should very well be doing these things, for the purpose of attacking other states. The reason is very clear as the Russian attacks on Estonia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_cyberattacks_on_Estonia ) demonstrate a clear need for defensive capability in this area, and where you have defence you end up needing offence.
This persistent confusion between legitimate NSA operations such as preparing to intercept communications of foreign governments and illegitimate such as mass slurping of everyone's email merely serves to discredit the entire privacy defending position, and in the long run will just play into the hands of those that want to read everyone's email for nefarious purposes.
Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#17How is this whistleblowing? What benefit do we as the public gain from this knowledge?
> What benefit do we as the public gain from this knowledge?
I'm from the EU, but I can imagine that, given that some of the NSA's operations today are only semi-constitutional, where these operations are supposed to be going is relevant to the debate.
Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#18There was a long interview with Snowden posted recently, which didn't make it to the frontpage. I guess because of Snowden penalty on HN and Snowden fatigue. Anyway, he kept repeating a point which is quite easy to understand for the public I think. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8859606 And the reality is when it comes to cyber conflicts [...], we have more to lose. We spend more on research and development th…
I thought the back doors into our vaults were intentional, so that NSA could get in. Is the NSA willing to allow local companies have a completely secure network if it means they can't get into it also? Seems like they're comfortanle with the risk of hacks as long as they can get to go into the vault and look around too.
Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#19I can understand the support of Snowden for blowing the whistle on domestic spying, but how is this defensible?
Re: New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle
#20To be fair here, the NSA should very well be doing these things, for the purpose of attacking other states. The reason is very clear as the Russian attacks on Estonia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_cyberattacks_on_Estonia ) demonstrate a clear need for defensive capability in this area, and where you have defence you end up needing offence. This persistent confusion between legitimate NSA operations such as pre…
Agreed. I think the Snowden revelations have harmed the NSA's reputation to the point where most people on HN just assume NSA is a bond-level villain. The NSA serves a purpose, they are meant to be prepared offensively and defensively for the USA's security, which includes the internet. I have no problems with the NSA's purpose and would prefer they continue to exist and prepare against threats to the country.
I do believe the NSA overstepped their mandate in domestic surveillance, and should be held accountable, but let's not forget that this world does have bad guy's - plenty of nations would lose no sleep at night if they hurt America.