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Learning from the Enemy: The Gunman Project (2007) [pdf]

nsa.gov

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Re: Learning from the Enemy: The Gunman Project (2007) [pdf]

#3

Post by cstross »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #2

Is there anyone else reluctant to open a pdf from the NSA?

(a) It's from their museum facility (if you ever get the chance to visit the National Cryptologic Museum in Maryland TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT)[1], not the NSA itself.

(b) It's a scan of a 30-year-old report on a completed project, redacted heavily. Nothing more.

(c) If they want your inside leg measurement they've got better ways to find it without feeding you a PDF they overtly created.

[1] Where else will you find a teaching exhibit for visiting schoolkids that lets them cypher a message on a no-shit four rotor WW2 German Enigma machine, hand it to a friend, and watch them decrypt it on another Engima machine at the other side of the room? (Hint: valuable museum pieces.) Also, working (or at least blinkenlights powered up) exhibits like a CM1 Connection Machine and a Cray X-MP, and a history of their amazing linguistics branch[2] ...

[2] Who have the world's largest collection of bible translations. Want to know why? It's worth your while to pay them a visit.

Re: Learning from the Enemy: The Gunman Project (2007) [pdf]

#5

Post by pilsetnieks »

cstross wrote: post #3
JupiterMoon wrote: post #2

Is there anyone else reluctant to open a pdf from the NSA?

(a) It's from their museum facility (if you ever get the chance to visit the National Cryptologic Museum in Maryland TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT )[1], not the NSA itself. (b) It's a scan of a 30-year-old report on a completed project, redacted heavily. Nothing more. (c) If they want your inside leg measurement they've got better ways to find it without feeding you a PDF they overtly created. [1] Where else will you find…

I'd wager a guess that [2] was necessary for messages using it as a code, e.g., page number+word number, or page number and then the Nth word or letter.

Re: Learning from the Enemy: The Gunman Project (2007) [pdf]

#6

Post by JupiterMoon »

cstross wrote: post #3
JupiterMoon wrote: post #2

Is there anyone else reluctant to open a pdf from the NSA?

(a) It's from their museum facility (if you ever get the chance to visit the National Cryptologic Museum in Maryland TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT )[1], not the NSA itself. (b) It's a scan of a 30-year-old report on a completed project, redacted heavily. Nothing more. (c) If they want your inside leg measurement they've got better ways to find it without feeding you a PDF they overtly created. [1] Where else will you find…

In response:

(a) I wish I could but I doubt I ever will. I've heard so much bad stuff about US border guards being annoying and transiting through the US being slow and painful that I won't even use a US hub anymore.

(b) Cool I guess I can't know if this is true without opening it though? This is partly the fault of the pdf spec itself. Maybe a more transparent document format would help (does that even exist)?.

(c) I suspect that they already have them.

Furthermore. I actually really want to read it. I'd really like to trust the NSA. However, their record is not good on being trustworthy.

Re: Learning from the Enemy: The Gunman Project (2007) [pdf]

#8

Post by leni536 »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #6
cstross wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(a) It's from their museum facility (if you ever get the chance to visit the National Cryptologic Museum in Maryland TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT )[1], not the NSA itself. (b) It's a scan of a 30-year-old report on a completed project, redacted heavily. Nothing more. (c) If they want your inside leg measurement they've got better ways to find it without feeding you a PDF they overtly created. [1] Where else will you find…

In response: (a) I wish I could but I doubt I ever will. I've heard so much bad stuff about US border guards being annoying and transiting through the US being slow and painful that I won't even use a US hub anymore. (b) Cool I guess I can't know if this is true without opening it though? This is partly the fault of the pdf spec itself. Maybe a more transparent document format would help (does that even exist)?. (c)…

How is PDF not as transparent as any other open binary format (though PDF is more like mixed)?

Edit:

> Maybe a more transparent document format would help (does not even exist).

I don't know if more transparent, but djvu exists for scanned documents. Postscript also exists but I would doubt that it's safer than PDF.

Re: Learning from the Enemy: The Gunman Project (2007) [pdf]

#9

Post by leni536 »

fallat wrote: post #4
JupiterMoon wrote: post #2

Is there anyone else reluctant to open a pdf from the NSA?

Download it, block all ports, run pdf reader in a chroot...B)

And on a separate X server. It's more like trusting your reader than the PDF file itself.
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