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Silicon Valley Should Join the War on Terrorism by John McCain

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Re: Silicon Valley Should Join the War on Terrorism by John McCain

#11
> This position is ideologically motivated and profit-driven, though not without merit

They also have a clue what the hell they are talking about.

Politicians should shut the fuck up in the face of experts.

I also don't understand why they think that ISIS and the like would have trouble accessing encryption because the US government says they get to control things now. The technology is freely available.

Re: Silicon Valley Should Join the War on Terrorism by John McCain

#13

Government should fix all the braindead policy that guarantees contracts are only awarded to the 'old boy crowd' or new entrants that don't have the skill/talent to do the work. The DOD outsources nearly everything that requires specialized skill and/or knowledge. Which is fine but the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations) are completely screwed. 18F and the USDS are showing a lot of promise in this domain. But, 'fix…

> ISIS doesn't have the talent to build such a thing.

not sure why you think that. Money would give them access I would think, if direct recruiting fails.

Re: Silicon Valley Should Join the War on Terrorism by John McCain

#14
post #13

Government should fix all the braindead policy that guarantees contracts are only awarded to the 'old boy crowd' or new entrants that don't have the skill/talent to do the work. The DOD outsources nearly everything that requires specialized skill and/or knowledge. Which is fine but the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations) are completely screwed. 18F and the USDS are showing a lot of promise in this domain. But, 'fix…

> ISIS doesn't have the talent to build such a thing. not sure why you think that. Money would give them access I would think, if direct recruiting fails.

Hypothetically, lets say money does solve the problem of developing a secure, encrypted communication.

How would ISIS go about distributing and training hundreds and thousands of grunts to use said app. Assuming most of their force is technically illiterate and/or literally illiterate. And, manages to do so without leaking the information to opposition intel.

For every developer willing to create such a tool for financial incentives there are likely an order of magnitude more grunts who would be willing to leak the information for a cash payout.

Make no mistake. For as much as ISIS loves to preach that their cause is purely ideologically driven, their existence depends on the ability to pay their troops a living wage.

You know what form of communication suffers from none of those issues? What their grunts likely already use? Gaming systems and voice chat. Considering the demographic of their fighting force, that's the first place I'd look.

Don't get me wrong. I respect John McCain for his service. I just think his motivations lately are focused more on policy and less on the war effort. The end goal being, to once again outlaw the non-government sanctioned use of encryption.

Re: Silicon Valley Should Join the War on Terrorism by John McCain

#15
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ISIS doesn't have the talent to build such a thing. not sure why you think that. Money would give them access I would think, if direct recruiting fails.

Hypothetically, lets say money does solve the problem of developing a secure, encrypted communication. How would ISIS go about distributing and training hundreds and thousands of grunts to use said app. Assuming most of their force is technically illiterate and/or literally illiterate. And, manages to do so without leaking the information to opposition intel. For every developer willing to create such a tool for fina…

While you make some good points, I find implausible the argument that the average grunt is too technically/literally illiterate to use a chat app, yet competent enough to use "gaming systems and voice chat".
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