A sad day indeed. The government has become "the terrorists".
Forced Exposure
11–20 of 430 posts
Re: Forced Exposure
#12Lets not try to code our way out of this. We succumb to terror pushing away meaningless bits of code on Github as a crypto projects in response. Some projects flourish sure but the same forces that profit off the court-less killings of others are collating your data, your pet projects. Harvesting your stolen info out of botnets. Giving you a salary for technician work keeping infrastructure ticking. Enough enabling t…
> If you have a career with Dell, AT&T, Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC, and many others, start making demands or make resumes. Stop being complicit. Unfortunately, the majority of wage-slaves are so indentured to their overlords that simply leaving is not an option, as the alternative is penury and starvation - particularly when you work for a giant like BAH, who'll ensure nobody will ever employ you again. If you want to…
Nobody on HN should say that she cannot stand up and walk away. We're have one the most sought-after and best paid jobs in the world. If we cannot give up some comfort, nobody is going to.
Re: Forced Exposure
#13When folks like Lavabit and Groklaw preemptively shut down because they cannot take the security & privacy of their communications for granted, it makes me wonder the converse: how are other companies that deal in sensitive information (patents, lawsuits, competitive bids etc.) dealing with it?
Have they resigned themselves to it? Are they devising new corporate communication policies that assume always-on surveillance? Are they thinking things will improve after this storm has passed?
Re: Forced Exposure
#14Lets not try to code our way out of this. We succumb to terror pushing away meaningless bits of code on Github as a crypto projects in response. Some projects flourish sure but the same forces that profit off the court-less killings of others are collating your data, your pet projects. Harvesting your stolen info out of botnets. Giving you a salary for technician work keeping infrastructure ticking. Enough enabling t…
That's nice to say. Get angry, be outraged. But what do we do , day-to-day, while things are still a mess? How do you organize a revolution under the noses of the people you're revolting against? The code still has a purpose, even if it's not the "right" solution, long-term.
It really comes down to lobbying lots and lots of politicians who can stop the NSA by significantly slashing its funding or by enforcing existing laws. The Occupy movement showed that revolutions don't work in a state where government and police will conspire against its citizens by infiltrating and undermining its civil rights movements.
Re: Forced Exposure
#15So about botnet data, here is one NSA related company that deals with data the coders are jailed over, Endgame Systems[1].
"botnet-analytics package gets you access to a database of Internet addresses, organization names, and worm types for hundreds of millions of infected computers, and costs $1.5 million."
Folks like the industrious pj have much to worry about when 'outside channels' are made into a a for-profit process. Combine 'parallel investigations' with 'outside channels' with a healthy dash of money for the ringleaders and some for the heads of the companies they pay (Google) and you plenty of reason not to talk law or much else over Email.
It is becoming a desperate situation for noncombatants.
Re: Forced Exposure
#16Want to keep your rights and freedom? It's time to act, now. History is full of great things going all the way down. Don't wait for the Superman.
> It's time to act, now
Suggested courses of action?
Tried and didn't work:
* voting
* not voting
* protesting online / offline
* writing about these issues, raising awareness
What options do we have left? Violence? Hopefully there's more.
Re: Forced Exposure
#17Lets not try to code our way out of this. We succumb to terror pushing away meaningless bits of code on Github as a crypto projects in response. Some projects flourish sure but the same forces that profit off the court-less killings of others are collating your data, your pet projects. Harvesting your stolen info out of botnets. Giving you a salary for technician work keeping infrastructure ticking. Enough enabling t…
That's nice to say. Get angry, be outraged. But what do we do , day-to-day, while things are still a mess? How do you organize a revolution under the noses of the people you're revolting against? The code still has a purpose, even if it's not the "right" solution, long-term.
Revolution is not what you think. It consists of the small actions of millions of people. The small actions are usually more revolutionary than the large.
The NSA has just created a huge market for guaranteed secure communications infrastructures. The technology is there. It may need some extensions but it is there.
Some ideas (again no time for a startup now and this is too important):
1. An email-like service based on TOR with content encrypted via public key encryption end to end.
2. The second is an encrypted voice network. This can't encrypt metadata a swell in a way that central offices can't see it, but the contents could be encrypted easily enough.
The code is a means to an end. We can't code our way out of the problem. We can build businesses that get us out and code is supportive of that.
Re: Forced Exposure
#18Wow. Crazy.
PJ presents it generically, but I can't help wondering if that is for legal reasons and something specific has happened that cannot be told.
Either way, a tragedy - the world needs, right now, exactly people like PJ and websites like Groklaw.
Re: Forced Exposure
#19Lets not try to code our way out of this. We succumb to terror pushing away meaningless bits of code on Github as a crypto projects in response. Some projects flourish sure but the same forces that profit off the court-less killings of others are collating your data, your pet projects. Harvesting your stolen info out of botnets. Giving you a salary for technician work keeping infrastructure ticking. Enough enabling t…
That's nice to say. Get angry, be outraged. But what do we do , day-to-day, while things are still a mess? How do you organize a revolution under the noses of the people you're revolting against? The code still has a purpose, even if it's not the "right" solution, long-term.
> But what do we do
Stop bothering with the articles here, and "get out of the building":
* Call or write a real letter to your representatives in congress (assuming you're American).
Hopefully that is something everyone has already done.
* Coordinate - isn't there some place where people are organizing/coordinating this stuff?
* Write a letter to the editor in your local newspaper.
* If you're in the bay area, how about helping to organize a primary challenger for Nancy Pelosi? She did not vote to defund the NSA. People in SF have the money, the means, and the incentive to get someone in office who cares more about this stuff.
* Donate money to politicians/groups opposing this stuff. The EFF, for instance.
Re: Forced Exposure
#20While I understand her (1) personal reasons for shutting down Groklaw, this is an extraordinarily bad decision for privacy and democracy.
In the last few weeks quite a few providers of private communications and/or freedom (for some definition of freedom) have shut down. Lavabot, Freedom Hosting, etc. If the US could shut down The Guardian they would.
This leaves fewer and fewer secure channels for private communication, and less and less information about what is actually going on.
This is an incredibly dangerous road to walk down, and is akin to the Intelligentsia leaving Germany in the 20's. We all know how that ended.
(1) edited his to her - thanks for pointing it out rolux