I guess it's always cool to learn about top secret stuff that spies do, but I don't get why the specifics of how their search engine works is significant. Am I just missing something?
Glenn Greenwald got a treasure trove and it's time to cash in.
The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
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Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#12It's kind of remarkable that they kept the lid on this on long as they did. With so many local/loosely-related agencies involved, I'm surprised somebody didn't leak this much sooner.
My guess is a lack of understanding.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#13Wonder how and where they recruit their top-talent. Pretty much every top scorer in my school went to Facebook/Google/Msft/Amzn. The mediocre ones went to Northrop Grumman/Raytheon/Rockwell and the like.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#14Wonder how and where they recruit their top-talent. Pretty much every top scorer in my school went to Facebook/Google/Msft/Amzn. The mediocre ones went to Northrop Grumman/Raytheon/Rockwell and the like.
My experience in school (and grad school) was similar, so I've been curious about the same thing. Perhaps, they only recruit folks from the industry after they've worked for a while and have specialized?
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#15Wonder how and where they recruit their top-talent. Pretty much every top scorer in my school went to Facebook/Google/Msft/Amzn. The mediocre ones went to Northrop Grumman/Raytheon/Rockwell and the like.
The Company doesn't exactly encourage recruits to advertise their new position. You mostly see people just vanish for a while. Young recruitment is largely done through direct faculty recommendations at schools, so it's more of a "don't find us, we'll find you" proposition.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#16I guess it's always cool to learn about top secret stuff that spies do, but I don't get why the specifics of how their search engine works is significant. Am I just missing something?
This, as with most of Greenwald's work on this subject, has been a slow effort to educate people about a very technical (for the average person) topic. Building on previous reports that showed the type of activity and the threat it can cause, this installment is about establishing the pattern of illegality.
If the NSA could justify the time and expense to make a search tool, there must be a lot of searching needs... which aren't legal for the NSA to send to the domestic-oriented agencies.
Also, more explicitly-stated details about how powerful "metadata" can be. Obvious to anybody who understands INNER JOIN, but this is still new for most people.
//Of course, I'm sure all this ignoring of warrants and the 4th Amendment, to quote a DOJ lawyer in the recent EFF mess regarding Jewel v NSA, is all for the "national security of this company". (emphasis mine)
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#17What I want to know is if this search tool is the backend for the "parallel construction" application forms[1] from earlier this year?
[1] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140203/11143926078/paral...
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#18I guess it's always cool to learn about top secret stuff that spies do, but I don't get why the specifics of how their search engine works is significant. Am I just missing something?
Glenn Greenwald got a treasure trove and it's time to cash in.
Glenn Greenwald has a lot of Powerpoint slides. Am I the only one who wants to see the source code for ICREACH, and all the other ALLCAPS projects?
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#19Wonder how and where they recruit their top-talent. Pretty much every top scorer in my school went to Facebook/Google/Msft/Amzn. The mediocre ones went to Northrop Grumman/Raytheon/Rockwell and the like.
My experience in school (and grad school) was similar, so I've been curious about the same thing. Perhaps, they only recruit folks from the industry after they've worked for a while and have specialized?
Maybe they recruit people while they are employed at FB/GG/Msft/Amz, you know, to help with national security while also receiving a second wage.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#20Somewhat OT but its amazing out of 3 "FTEs" 1 was for design ("GUI") and this is what they came up with. [1] pg 22 https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/08/25/shari...
Also notice the entire screen shot. Netscape on Windows XP in, best we can tell, sometime after March 2006. Netscape. With an AIM launcher in the status bar. Accessing TOP SECRET//COMINT//NOFORN resources.
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