NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide

Post by samstave » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 7:20 PM UTC

selmnoo wrote: post #114

bhousel wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would NSA agents go through all the trouble of tapping cables when they could probably just gain employment at Google and do whatever they want. I don't think encryption would make a difference here.

There's greater risk of facing problems of all sorts when you have rogue agents on the inside (what if they get found out? how will that be met by news journals? people who find out about it? the trust dynamics between CEOs and government agencies that request access in a legal way, when needed?). The risk of things going wrong when you're tapping cables is much less pronounced as far as I can see.

Post by blumkvist » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 7:21 PM UTC

danbruc wrote: post #156

bradleyjg wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's hard not to come to the conclusion that these activities were essentially criminal. I don't see how the administration can fail to disavow them, investigate them fully, and hold their instigators accountable. It feels like Special Prosecutor time. The government takes the position that their agents are almost completely unconstrained by law when it comes to actions taken abroad aimed at non-US persons. Even we…

I am at a loss for words. Arrogant, self-righteous, disrespectful, ignorant, mendacious...nothing cuts it. It is illegal in the US but who cares about the rest of the world? I can not remember when something similar made me that angry as the current conduct of the US does. If I would not know better that this would negatively affect the whole world and innocent US citizens and that emotional reactions are usually not…

Post by samstave » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 7:22 PM UTC

bjt wrote: post #192

bhousel wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would NSA agents go through all the trouble of tapping cables when they could probably just gain employment at Google and do whatever they want. I don't think encryption would make a difference here.

I'm not sure why you think that's so easy to do. You need a person who: 1. Has the technical credentials and interviewing skills to get hired at Google (not easy). 2. Has a security clearance. 3. Wants to be a spy. 4. Can get themselves assigned to the team working on datacenter interconnects. 5. Can set up a tap on the interconnect without getting caught. That sounds both hard and expensive to me.

Post by outworlder » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 7:24 PM UTC

mapgrep wrote: post #104

ori_b wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google was letting information flow between its data center completely unencrypted until last month. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-enc... . Last month! Over their own private WAN. The analogy would be sending things in the clear over your LAN. [Citation: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rcs/research/google-onrc-slide... ]

The likelihood miles and miles of cabling, much of it presumably leased, will be compromised is nowhere near comparable to the likelihood a normal, single-location office/home ethernet LAN will be compromised. (And if you think both are easily compromised, that only adds to my original point.)

Post by xal » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 7:26 PM UTC

Zelphyr wrote: post #79

betterunix wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what would outrage the public? ESPN being shut down. Most people do not actually care about their privacy. Even if everyone had the technical chops needed to understand what has been happening, most people never spend much time contemplating the importance of privacy rights.

> You know what would outrage the public? ESPN being shut down. No better way to state it. Our government is fucking us with our pants on but we're too distracted (by people getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars to throw a fucking ball around) to care.