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Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

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Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#111

I posted about this in a different thread with a different throwaway, because I had suspicions that Snowden knew about the whole EG auction thing anyways. The writing has been on the walls. This is why there is so much hype over what appears at a first glance to be an obvious scam, because there is a lot of potential for civilians to learn a lot about how state-sponsored hacking actually operates. It's very different…

I wish you didn't use throwaways so I could follow your posts. I assume you're the blink person from the other post.

It sounds like you're someone who knows a little more than average about what's happening.

Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#112

This is no different than the constant "war" between military offense and defense. "Good guys" and "bad guys" constant try to get the upper hand leading to temporary winners and losers. You build a fatter castle wall, I build a stronger cannon. The NSA and its adversaries are no different.

Except usually when you build a bigger canon you point it at people outside your castle.

Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#114
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to elaborate? TAO ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations ) seems fine to me.

TAO is composed of much, much more than "hackers". To give him the benefit of the doubt, his comment shows willful ignorance of this fact.

C'mon, it's Twitter, where you only have 140 characters. He's not going to type out "NSA's hackers (generally part of the group known as Tailored Access Operations, but there are some in other groups)" just so you can't be pedantic.

Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate when people do that. Much like I hate when people looking for support send me screenshots - it's SO MUCH harder to transcribe ID#s, for example, or to record the details of the issue for future search.

If it's a question of a lesser of two evils - tweetstorms or one screenshot - which do you prefer? Consider also the fact that when people share a tweetstorm, they may even take a screenshot of it.

> If it's a question of a lesser of two evils - tweetstorms or one screenshot - which do you prefer?

How about a screenshot with a link to the text version for those sufficiently motivated? I know most people don't care for accessibility, but sheesh, that simple courtesy would mean the world to those who use screenreaders.

Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, he also all but accuses NSA of interfering with US ally's Elections.

Honestly, I think its a bit far fetched the US would meddle in the foreign affairs of an ally. We have a long documented history of staying out of civil wars, guerrilla warfare, and aiding the "right" people to come to leadership as it suits us.

You'l have to show the sarcasm tag, I almost fell for it...

Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes Russia pointing this out to make us lose trust in the U.S.? I think the U.S. has done this all on their own. Snowden was just the latest whistleblower showing the world they can't be trusted. There were others before him, but it got swept under the rug. We all know the U.S. election system is flawed to a point of being broken and thus democracy as we like to believe it's supposed to work doesn't even exist.…

> We all know rolls eyes , adjust your tinfoil hat. Look, even if you believe that dark, unseen forces control the world using the US as a conduit - it would appear that the world has been the better for it. Given a choice of world management between Russian and US in this regard, the choice is pretty straightforward. People who complain about Europe, the US and the general Western alliances management of the world a…

I think many people of vietnam, cambodia, laos, indonesia, angola, nicaragua, grenada, most of the middle east, afghanistan, pakistan [1] and so on would strongly disagree. Potentially lesser evil out of 2 evils ain't no good choice.

[1] http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html

Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#118
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We all know rolls eyes , adjust your tinfoil hat. Look, even if you believe that dark, unseen forces control the world using the US as a conduit - it would appear that the world has been the better for it. Given a choice of world management between Russian and US in this regard, the choice is pretty straightforward. People who complain about Europe, the US and the general Western alliances management of the world a…

Whether the US is a force for good is a completely different argument than whether it's untrustworthy and/or undemocratic.

#1, Yes, I specifically called out his argument as being hollow, and supported only by an appeal to "everyone knows" - he's self selecting his audience.

Even within that audience which implicitly accepts the government is more directly engaged in protection of sovereignty via clandestine means against it's own citizens -- that audience should probably consider the goals of the sources.

Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#119
post #10

His complete post (just in case) original 4:40 AM - 16 Aug 2016 from @Snowden: The hack of an NSA malware staging server is not unprecedented, but the publication of the take is. Here's what you need to know: (1/x) 1) NSA traces and targets malware C2 servers in a practice called Counter Computer Network Exploitation, or CCNE. So do our rivals. 2) NSA is often lurking undetected for years on the C2 and ORBs (proxy ho…

Thank you for summarizing that. As others have commented, I wish Snowden would simply blog about this sort of thing. Twitter is frustrating to digest for any insightful commentary that is on the longer side.

I agree, but twitter does simplify the spread of certain "quotes". I doubt the same amount of people would take to social media to share a blog entry as opposed to tweets.

Re: Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

#120
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this seems to be the "Dr Strangelove" scenario playing out, but with (fortunately) exploits rather than nuclear weapons. It sounds like many countries have other significant exploits into other countries, but this isn't "admitted"; it's not an unignorable public fact (+). The Russian destabilisation plan is to get Western countries to see NSA attacks on them and lose trust in the US - plus an attack on the concept…

It takes Russia pointing this out to make us lose trust in the U.S.? I think the U.S. has done this all on their own. Snowden was just the latest whistleblower showing the world they can't be trusted. There were others before him, but it got swept under the rug. We all know the U.S. election system is flawed to a point of being broken and thus democracy as we like to believe it's supposed to work doesn't even exist.…

We all know

That was the point I was trying to make with "unignorable public fact" - "we" don't "all" "know" that, for various values of those words. Would you expect TV anchors to say things like "Well, I'm standing outside this polling place, but I'm not really sure what the point is because elections are broken"? Millions of people get involved in fighting elections like they mean it.

Consensus about this kind of thing is a real problem, because the landscape is polluted with lies and delusions.

Edit: I specifically said "lose faith in the US election", not "lose faith in the US [generally]"; it's one thing if the bad policy is the result of legitimate elections, it's quite another if either the vote is widely rigged (hacking voting machines), subject to intimidation. People ending up believing it's rigged when it actually wasn't is just as bad, it's the kind of thing that leads to political violence.

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