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NSA OSS Technologies

nationalsecurityagency.github.io

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Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#101

Post by ginreaper »

wfunction wrote: post #77
dagw wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certain government agencies and subsidiaries are exempt from having their work considered "government work" and can thus claim copyright if they want. I'm guessing the NSA is such and agency. Also if the work was actually done by a contractor then there are other exemptions.

Thanks, but I'm not sure that's it. For example, when I look at at [1], I see an apparent contradiction with [2]. It almost seems like they don't know what they're doing, but surely that's because I'm misunderstanding what's going on? [1] https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/DCP/blob/21c8d3efe... [2] https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/DCP/blob/496402fa9...

Well if they are forking or contributing to other software or any type of derivative work, they probably have to retain the original license by law

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#102

Post by wfunction »

ginreaper wrote: post #101
wfunction wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, but I'm not sure that's it. For example, when I look at at [1], I see an apparent contradiction with [2]. It almost seems like they don't know what they're doing, but surely that's because I'm misunderstanding what's going on? [1] https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/DCP/blob/21c8d3efe... [2] https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/DCP/blob/496402fa9...

Well if they are forking or contributing to other software or any type of derivative work, they probably have to retain the original license by law

That's not the case at least in the example I just gave though, right?

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#103

Post by yarrel »

ganoushoreilly wrote: post #94
LunaSea wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's multiple reasons why you wouldn't want to use these newly released open-source projects. First one is, like you said, the danger of a backdoor. The second one is that due to the very long list of non-ethical and illegal practices of the organisation you don't want to contribute or depend on them.

Bleach has been used in bombs around the world, should I not use it because there's a chance it's been used for (perceived) evil?

Cluster bombs have such blatant propaganda spread against them by well-meaning but naive individuals. Don't be fooled - look at all their positive uses!

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#104

Post by Communitivity »

killjoywashere wrote: post #6
voltagex_ wrote: post #3

https://github.com/ozoneplatform/owf-framework looks very interesting - NSA wrote their own BI tool?

OWF came up in a meeting recently -- may not be as awesome as NSA wants you to believe.

The Ozone Widget Framework is a mess, albeit a mess that's usable once you learn its quirks. The idea is basically web components, portlets, etc. rehashed with some shared service capabilities added in. Something I find interesting and rarely see mentioned: OWF was built from Apache Shindig, an Open Social spec implementation Google donated to Apache. For more information on OWF, see (PDF) http://www.dataintelligencellc.com/uploads//DI-OWF-Capabilit...

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#105

Post by sneak »

angry_octet wrote: post #84
sneak wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not forget: these people may be skilled, but they are working against every principle of our community. https://www-androidauthority-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/www.an...

And you pasted an amp link? Was that deep sarcasm? The world is full of shades of grey, and black and white 'they are all evil!' is just pointless and dumb.

It wasn't intentionally ironic.

Where did I call anyone evil? I didn't even vilify people - I specifically focused on the work that these people are performing. It works to make the world a worse place.

How should I criticize them?

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#106

Post by Toast_ »

lsh wrote: post #4

I've trialed Apache Nifi and it's very powerful. It's also a little unsettling as you use it thinking about how the NSA used it ...

NiFi looks pretty interesting, what's the learning curve like? Looks like a supercharged yahoo pipes.

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#107

Post by angry_octet »

sneak wrote: post #105
angry_octet wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you pasted an amp link? Was that deep sarcasm? The world is full of shades of grey, and black and white 'they are all evil!' is just pointless and dumb.

It wasn't intentionally ironic. Where did I call anyone evil? I didn't even vilify people - I specifically focused on the work that these people are performing. It works to make the world a worse place. How should I criticize them?

For breaking the law and working to undermine the Constitution? Is that not a big enough claim?

Maybe blame specific people (the DIR NSA Hayden, Bush, Obama). There was a strong culture at NSA of NOT spying on Americans until those clowns came along.

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#108

Post by secfirstmd »

rdtsc wrote: post #12

This caught my eye: > https://github.com/apache/incubator-pirk > Employing homomorphic encryption techniques, PIR enables datasets to remain resident in their native locations while giving the ability to query the datasets with sensitive terms. I can imagine a few scenarios there. One perhaps is when db admin should not find out what someone, possibly working on a classified project is querying. Or say one compartmen…

I guess an example might be that the NSA has access to other partners information (e.g non-five eyes like Germany) and doesn't want their DB folks to be able to see that they are quering against the databases (e.g Merkels phone number)

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#109

Post by Spearchucker »

Cakez0r wrote: post #100
Spearchucker wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AMRAs are like physical documents with an instruction to the information guardian, with a signature from the information owner, authorising access. A lot of it is electronic these days, and is automated to the point that an individual authorises access by clicking a link in an email that calls an endpoint that in turn releases a token and URL to the requestor to view the appropriate records.

So like OAuth?

Partly. OAuth is authentication (who I am), which is part of it, but the real point is authorisation (what I can do).

Re: NSA OSS Technologies

#110

Post by sneak »

angry_octet wrote: post #107
sneak wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't intentionally ironic. Where did I call anyone evil? I didn't even vilify people - I specifically focused on the work that these people are performing. It works to make the world a worse place. How should I criticize them?

For breaking the law and working to undermine the Constitution? Is that not a big enough claim? Maybe blame specific people (the DIR NSA Hayden, Bush, Obama). There was a strong culture at NSA of NOT spying on Americans until those clowns came along.

But spying on other people is okay, simply because where they had the audacity to be born?

Nations are fictions and depriving rights to a group that you permit to others based on nationality is entirely unjust.

I blame the specific people who built these systems to collect and process data for the military.

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