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That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

cybersect.substack.com

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Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#101

Post by dboreham »

chinathrow wrote: post #14
immibis wrote: post #5

First thing I thought when reading it. This story makes no sense. Nothing they mentioned in the article is actually illegal. Having lots of phones (even in a rack-mount form factor) isn't illegal. Even if the phone network could conceivably be DoSed with that many phones all calling at once, it's not illegal unless you actually do that or intend to do it. And their other justification was that this equipment could be…

> Nothing they mentioned in the article is actually illegal. What about sending spam and threaths over one of these SIMs? I'm pretty sure that warrants legal action.

Spam is illegal? I'd love that to be true but I don't see any spam police under the current administration (who are prolific...spamers).

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#102

Post by lxgr »

nikcub wrote: post #24

Paying for residential / mobile proxy[0] traffic for scraping is becoming more common - this is what I always imagined the other end of the mobile part looked like. [0] https://oxylabs.io/products/mobile-proxies

Wow, I knew there were residential proxies for sale (for bypassing geofenced VOD content etc.), but I didn't know that was a thing for mobile data yet.

Is it time to stop treating somebody's IP address as an authentication factor yet?

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#103

Post by alansammarone »

roody15 wrote: post #98

Once a Chinese grad student explained to me a difference he noted between Chinese and American citizens. He said in China no really reads or watches 24/7 major news outlets in China. They are fully aware that all of it is propaganda and just go about their life. He said Americans seem to get really emotional over content in the press and seem to really struggle with the idea of propaganda / journalism in the news. I…

While I think I agree with most of what you're saying, I think it can be misunderstood and it can be very damaging when taken to an extreme, so I'll just leave a quote from the absolutely fantastic 20 lessons from the 20th century by Timothy Snyder:

> Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#104

Post by numpad0 »

This is odd, considering Stingray type devices in back of rideshares targeting phones by IMEI in developed countries is definitely real. But this article doesn't sound bogus, either. One plausible theory is that it was a closest plausible scapegoat that the authority could find, which isn't confidence inspiring.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#106

Post by RamRodification »

roody15 wrote: post #98

Once a Chinese grad student explained to me a difference he noted between Chinese and American citizens. He said in China no really reads or watches 24/7 major news outlets in China. They are fully aware that all of it is propaganda and just go about their life. He said Americans seem to get really emotional over content in the press and seem to really struggle with the idea of propaganda / journalism in the news. I…

...and let someone else pay the price in the end for letting these things happen unchecked. Perhaps your children :)

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#107

Post by alansammarone »

RamRodification wrote: post #106
roody15 wrote: post #98

Once a Chinese grad student explained to me a difference he noted between Chinese and American citizens. He said in China no really reads or watches 24/7 major news outlets in China. They are fully aware that all of it is propaganda and just go about their life. He said Americans seem to get really emotional over content in the press and seem to really struggle with the idea of propaganda / journalism in the news. I…

...and let someone else pay the price in the end for letting these things happen unchecked. Perhaps your children :)

This. I can't keep myself from quoting another 20th century lesson from Snyder:

> Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#108

Post by pookha »

roody15 wrote: post #98

Once a Chinese grad student explained to me a difference he noted between Chinese and American citizens. He said in China no really reads or watches 24/7 major news outlets in China. They are fully aware that all of it is propaganda and just go about their life. He said Americans seem to get really emotional over content in the press and seem to really struggle with the idea of propaganda / journalism in the news. I…

What your Chinese friend isn't saying is that all those Substack writers in the US would be disappeared into Chinese gulag's. The US has a strong freedom of speech clause baked into its core governance system...When I was fifteen I'd be subscribed to five different punk zines and would be creating mix-tapes from 10 different sources (and much of it wildly offensive and political).

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#109

Post by seydor »

roody15 wrote: post #98

Once a Chinese grad student explained to me a difference he noted between Chinese and American citizens. He said in China no really reads or watches 24/7 major news outlets in China. They are fully aware that all of it is propaganda and just go about their life. He said Americans seem to get really emotional over content in the press and seem to really struggle with the idea of propaganda / journalism in the news. I…

I think the main difference is, in liberal countries people depend on the media to manufacture consensuses, while China does not need anyone but the leader to create them. No society can survive without a certain degree of consensus

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#110

Post by contrarian1234 »

RamRodification wrote: post #106
roody15 wrote: post #98

Once a Chinese grad student explained to me a difference he noted between Chinese and American citizens. He said in China no really reads or watches 24/7 major news outlets in China. They are fully aware that all of it is propaganda and just go about their life. He said Americans seem to get really emotional over content in the press and seem to really struggle with the idea of propaganda / journalism in the news. I…

...and let someone else pay the price in the end for letting these things happen unchecked. Perhaps your children :)

you caring a lot doesn't change reality in your favor. You get one vote that you can exercise once a year or so. Thats about all the agency you have on the wider world (and probably rightly so, if its to be proportional to the population)

Being informed just enough to choose the less horrible of the two clowns the systems presents you... takes very little effort. Everything past that is a waste of brain cycles. Spend your energy on things you can affect. If you care about your children then spend the emotional energy on your friends, family and community. It'll help them more

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