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Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

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Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#11

Post by dang »

Related. There were probably other relevant threads over the years—can anyone find some?

Room 641A - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41507188 - Sept 2024 (5 comments)

The secrets of Room 641A (2008) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38305501 - Nov 2023 (4 comments)

Room 641A - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32984515 - Sept 2022 (2 comments)

Room 641A - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23350120 - May 2020 (70 comments)

Room 641A - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12515724 - Sept 2016 (75 comments)

Room 641A - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5847166 - June 2013 (44 comments)

Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#12

Post by nabakin »

kstrauser wrote: post #5

Nooooooo! He was my next door neighbor a few years ago, and I knew him as a person before I realized that I knew him as a hero. His dogs were fiercely protective of his house, which is perfectly understandable. One day I saw a "sewer cleaning" van behind his house, and I have a hard time believing that's what it really was: https://honeypot.net/2025/03/12/rip-mark-klein.html

I don't think I've ever seen the inside of an actual undercover van before. Crazy picture. Do we know anything else about them?

Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#13

Post by [deleted] »

kstrauser wrote: post #5

Nooooooo! He was my next door neighbor a few years ago, and I knew him as a person before I realized that I knew him as a hero. His dogs were fiercely protective of his house, which is perfectly understandable. One day I saw a "sewer cleaning" van behind his house, and I have a hard time believing that's what it really was: https://honeypot.net/2025/03/12/rip-mark-klein.html

[deleted]

Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#14

Post by mikeyouse »

itisit wrote: post #9
kstrauser wrote: post #5

Nooooooo! He was my next door neighbor a few years ago, and I knew him as a person before I realized that I knew him as a hero. His dogs were fiercely protective of his house, which is perfectly understandable. One day I saw a "sewer cleaning" van behind his house, and I have a hard time believing that's what it really was: https://honeypot.net/2025/03/12/rip-mark-klein.html

The money shot! I did not realize sewer cleaning required so much onsite IT. Are those rack units running computational fluid dynamics models to figure out how to unclog elaborate networks of pipes?

Interestingly, it seems the 'real' sewer cleaning company uses a bunch of tech to do their inspections, etc.:

https://specializedmaintenance.com/services/digital-tv-inspe...

(Which would make it an excellent van for the 3-letter spooks to copy, so not really persuasive either way)

Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#16

Post by bloomingkales »

roenxi wrote: post #7

The tolerance for the US mass spying efforts remains weird. It undermines the credibility of many US politicians around Trump - yes the US public appears to be set to vote in Hitler-equivalents for the forseeable future. No, dismantling the insane spying apparatus is not a major agenda point. Marry those two ideas together.

It's pretty much a forgone conclusion since they are putting AI into every intersection. How are you going to argue against the fact that government AI needs your data for training?

Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#17

Post by psadauskas »

roenxi wrote: post #7

The tolerance for the US mass spying efforts remains weird. It undermines the credibility of many US politicians around Trump - yes the US public appears to be set to vote in Hitler-equivalents for the forseeable future. No, dismantling the insane spying apparatus is not a major agenda point. Marry those two ideas together.

Its fine, as long as they're spying on the radical woke leftists. They'd never spy on one of the good guys like me! /s

Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#18

Post by neil_s_anderson »

I find it odd how many people automatically assume that whatever the NSA is up to must be undesirable and therefore should be opposed.

I mean, where do you think analysis of plans by terrorists and nation state adversaries to attack our nation and its allies comes from? The raw intelligence data these are based on can only be gathered by surveillance of communications, both targeted and in bulk.

You should all be supporting this, as you benefit from it every day.

Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#19

Post by kstrauser »

spaceribs wrote: post #10
itisit wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The money shot! I did not realize sewer cleaning required so much onsite IT. Are those rack units running computational fluid dynamics models to figure out how to unclog elaborate networks of pipes?

I'd like to believe it was an inspection van: https://nationalplant.com/services/digital-tv-inspection/ I'd like to believe that, but I don't.

That very well could be what it was. If it had been anything other than:

1. Spotless.

2. Parked right behind Klein's (and by extension, my) house.

3. Skittish, such that they closed the door right after I took the picture and drove off less than a minute later without pulling any gear up out of a manhole or something.

then that's probably what I'd chalk it up to. I am absolutely not 100% convinced it was, say, an undercover NSA van.

And yet, that's exactly what I thought it was from the moment I saw the gear racks and monitors inside.

Re: Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed NSA mass spying, has died

#20

Post by lukan »

nabakin wrote: post #12
kstrauser wrote: post #5

Nooooooo! He was my next door neighbor a few years ago, and I knew him as a person before I realized that I knew him as a hero. His dogs were fiercely protective of his house, which is perfectly understandable. One day I saw a "sewer cleaning" van behind his house, and I have a hard time believing that's what it really was: https://honeypot.net/2025/03/12/rip-mark-klein.html

I don't think I've ever seen the inside of an actual undercover van before. Crazy picture. Do we know anything else about them?

I would not jump to conclusions so soon.

A) I would question why they would do the effort of still doing surveillance on him

B) if they do, they are usually so smart to keep the door closed

C) like others have mentioned, sewer cleaning comes with a lot of tech (I assume remote controlled machines)

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