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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

#131

Post by singpolyma3 »

topspin wrote: post #94

So if some rando were to just find one of these huge SIM farms, who could they call, and would anything be done? With the number of radios seen in the photos from the original story, there must have been a great deal of SMS from that structure. That is very easy to spot with low cost equipment: a TinySA[1] and a directional antenna should be sufficient. Hams do "fox hunting" with similarly basic equipment. Given the…

SIM farms are probably against the ToS for most carriers, but otherwise they're not fundamentally problematic just massively inefficient

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#132

Post by r3trohack3r »

seydor wrote: post #109
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

I believe it’s a mistake for liberal countries to rely on centralized content distribution platforms for consensus - that’s how you end up with consensus being for sale.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#133

Post by ceejayoz »

jonnybgood wrote: post #115
bongodongobob wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet people are getting fired over making comments about Charlie Kirk on social media.

By the government?

In some cases, yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciplinary_actions_for_comme...

> Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that any non-citizens who celebrated Kirk's death would be immediately deported…

> Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated on Katie Miller's podcast and in subsequent Department of Justice announcements that she intended to "target" speech against Kirk following his death as hate speech…

Plus teachers in public schools and universities.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#134

Post by imcritic »

manoDev wrote: post #124
pookha wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

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Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#135

Post by imcritic »

jonnybgood wrote: post #115
bongodongobob wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet people are getting fired over making comments about Charlie Kirk on social media.

By the government?

Even if gov isn't involved directly - it could very easily press some corps for such firings.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#136

Post by contrarian1234 »

RHSeeger wrote: post #122
contrarian1234 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That's silly. Talking about such things; with friends, family, online, etc; raises awareness of it. And the more people that are aware of such things, the more likely they are to vote against it. So if you're relying on votes to change things, then discussing it helps.

i think when it comes to big picture stuff it makes sense that everyone has proportionate input. just bc you care a lot, doesnt mean you should have more say

just make your opinion, cast your vote and let other people make their own decisions. Feeling youre right and gotta go convince all the wrong people is sort of inherantly a bad selfrighteous place to come from

EDIT:

I think there is a broader sentiment that we all just have to care more and everything will get sorted out. I think recent history hasn't bore that out. People seem to care and have extremely strong emotional opinions about everything now a days.. and I don't think in the net it's brought anything positive

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#137

Post by scottlabsorg »

manoDev wrote: post #124
pookha wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

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Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#138

Post by robmccoll »

jonnybgood wrote: post #115
bongodongobob wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet people are getting fired over making comments about Charlie Kirk on social media.

By the government?

I agree with you. I get tired of people complaining about "cancel culture" and the reactions of private individuals and groups to the opinions and actions of other private individuals and groups. People have the right to say what they want and to do what they want up to the limits of causing harm to others. They can shout their inflammatory opinions from the roof tops. They can boycott and petition to try to convince private groups from giving platform to opinions or people they don't like. All of that is protected speech.

This current executive branch is weighing in and using its influence to try to control speech. It's not "you'll get disappeared by secret police for what you told your coworker in confidence" levels of control, but that it's happening at all is alarming. I worry that they have no problem trampling on the first amendment and that it seems like no part of the government is going to restrict them from it.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#139

Post by kcplate »

notatoad wrote: post #74
alansammarone wrote: post #41

I felt slightly...hm...confused when reading this. When I see something in the news, to the degree that I trust the source, I see it only as a statement of fact, and unless I trust the commentator, I ignore the comment. I only expect descriptive accuracy from the news. This sometimes requires resources that individuals don't generally have. When I read a personal blog article articulating a personal opinion, presenti…

I think, the more extraordinary the claim is, the more proof is required. And I’m with you, I’d normally be incredibly skeptical of a substack post from an author I’ve never heard of before, who writes as egotistically as this. But there is just no extraordinary claim in this article. Only a very very ordinary claim that should be believable to any person who has ever owned a cell phone: SIM farms are normal, common…

The article for me was weird in the sense that it makes the claim that the purpose was of the farms were not necessarily nefarious in a terror sense, but merely criminal. Even suggesting that they could be legitimate (that was a stretch, sim farms in residential apartments? Please.).

It also makes the point that its purpose wasn’t to disrupt cell service, although these things can and will disrupt cell services.

So from my perspective, the article is strange in the sense that the author seems pretty intent on splitting enough hairs to prove the secret service wrong. For me, I don’t care if they are wrong about its purpose— If this helps decrease spam messages, great. If it means that cell services are now more reliable in that area, great. If it’s something that could be hijacked and used for terroristic purposes and has now been neutralized, great.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#140

Post by castis »

jonnybgood wrote: post #115
bongodongobob wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet people are getting fired over making comments about Charlie Kirk on social media.

By the government?

"Call them out, hell, call their employer" -JD Vance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngofqx9EfcM&t=7398s

https://x.com/SecRubio/status/1967784061721776521 revoking visas

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