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Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

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Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#271

Post by ino »

mladenkovacevic wrote: post #196
tyingq wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They went even harder at it in an earlier medium post: "TheShadowBrokers is having special trick or treat for Amerikanskis tonight." https://medium.com/@shadowbrokerss/message-5-trick-or-treat-... I suppose though, that "Amerikanski" might be used outside Russia. Serbia, Bulgaria? Misdirection seems more likely though.

Amerikanski is used in those languages to indicate ownership (eg. This is an American car) so to someone of slavic speaking origin this would be wrong (they would've said Amerikanci to indicate plural). But even aside from that, this honestly sounds so put on. Even the worst english speakers I know from eastern Europe know that you add an "s" to form plural. We all take English from elementary school and nobody would…

Amerikanski also means American language, but I think it would be a little stretch for Amerikanskis to mean people who speak american english.

Implausible, I guess. It feels more like somebody faking a russian person writing in english for obfuscation rather than deception purposes.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#272

Post by oculusthrift »

coldtea wrote: post #247
oculusthrift wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ahhh..... whataboutism[0]. classic russian tactic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

Confirmation bias: classical lalala-hands-in-the-ears-denial tactic. Also, not a Russian. Tinfoil much? Besides I'm not the one who opened an account here a mere few months ago. I'm a regular on HN for 5+ years. Now, regarding the accusation of "whataboutism", I found that it's the stupidest of knee-jerk responses. It makes looking at all sides look like some kind of error. "Yeah, my side can kill, invade, meddle wit…

you're not a willing russian shill. you seem much more in the vein of noam chomsky or glenn freenwald criticizing america every chance you have. and doing so on RT nonetheless.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#273

Post by atemerev »

throwaway71958 wrote: post #112
doktrin wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't know why you guys are trying to divine identity based on textual clues like this. It's safe to assume every stylistic and linguistic choice is deliberate.

Sure. But if that's what you really think, then you don't get to assume that the DNC was hacked "by the Russians". Agreed?

No, as a fellow Russian I am fine to admit that the DNC hacks were probably done by us. When the leak happened, there was a little too much enthusiasm in Russian hacking circles. Guccifer2.0's style was also consistent with Russian writing.

But when the Shadowbrokers leak appeared, the community response was more like "wat."

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#274

Post by mootothemax »

jwilk wrote: post #109
mootothemax wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I get your wider point, I find the different types of mistakes that ESL'ers with different mother tongues make absolutely fascinating. I've noticed, say, that in Poland, where the native tongue lacks articles, people regularly mess up "the" and "a," or miss them altogether. I've never met a French person with the same issue, for obvious reasons. When I started looking into people's mistakes with tenses in Engli…

No, in Polish adjectives normally go before nouns, just like in English.

Ehhhh... not often quite set in stone enough that you can rely on it, especially for spoken language. Emphasis and a whole host of other situations lean towards - but by no means demand - order in the example given.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#275

Post by 3131s »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #268
3131s wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Hillary Clinton didn't have such high unfavorables it wouldn't have been a contest. If Bernie hadn't siphoned off some of her support it wouldn't have been a contest. How about if Hillary simply picked Bernie as VP? Is there anyone here that thinks she wouldn't have won on that decision alone? Don't blame Bernie supporters (I am not one, to be clear), why should they walk a mile to Clinton's positions when Clint…

Hillary was pro-war, only half-ass wanted a minimum wage hike, pro free trade agreements, pro fracking, and said Single Payer was never happening. I honestly don't understand why any liberal would have voted for her.

Right, I would have never voted for her, and not saying that she would have been any better with Sanders, but I think it's very likely she would have won.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#276

Post by mirimir »

zzzcpan wrote: post #210
mirimir wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the US, trying to manipulate itself against Russia.

So, you are suggesting that TheShadowBrokers is a CIA effort, right? And that they elected Trump too to destroy Russia?

Maybe I've missed some key evidence here, but how do we know that the same entity is behind both TheShadowBrokers and the efforts to get Trump elected?

I do suspect a new level to the Cold War, where "Russia" was disrupting US society through many channels. Including, for example, Mad Magazine and then The Realist. We also know that "the US" was manipulating the postmodern art scene. Organizing groups, publishing magazines, etc.

But maybe I've been manipulated to think that, by some third party, which has an interest in global disorder. It's very hard to find reliable information, when nothing is what it seems.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#277

Post by Veratyr »

jorblumesea wrote: post #147

Is there any doubt the Shadow Brokers are Russian and working for Russian interests? The timing of releases, international events concerning both countries and pointed measures are far too suspicious to be considered circumstantial.

Yes. We're in the middle of an information war between America and Russia. I highly recommend doubting everything that involves either of these countries. I'm yet to find a single source of information that doesn't contain bias one way or the other. Even HN seems to have a "of course it's Russia" bias these days.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#278

Post by doktrin »

jessaustin wrote: post #243
doktrin wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that have to do with my point about inferring identity based on textual clues in this blog post?

'doktrin perhaps you have confused this subthread with a different one; it would be understandable since you've seen fit to post on this page sixteen times already. (Bonus points: you've used the phrase "paid shills" twice!) Unless you're willing to admit now that you are the DNC staffer who leaked all their dirty laundry to Wikileaks, you've got to admit that this tawdry hermeneutical argument no longer suffices to…

> perhaps you have confused this subthread with a different one

No, but since you're obviously confused let me explain which thread we're in. The common topic, stretching back to the top comment, is armchair linguistic "analysis" :

>> (throwaway71958) Well, there's no Russian first-language bias in that text for sure. Another argument in favor of the opinion that this was written by an American: the author seems to be well versed in the memes of the US political discourse. Someone from outside the US is unlikely to even know or care about Trump's "movement", or who "Bannon" is, or "drain the swamp", or "white privilege" etc. They're also unlikely to abbreviate "New York Times" as "NYT". The telltale signs are all over the text.

>> (atemerev) Yes, exactly. While those are still somewhat plausible (I am Russian, and I might have occasionally used all of these ironically), it was "POTUS" and "SCOTUS" that made me 99% sure that this text was written by an American (or at least a US insider). You guys love your acronyms.

>> (doktrin) I honestly don't know why you guys are trying to divine identity based on textual clues like this. It's safe to assume every stylistic and linguistic choice is deliberate.

>> (throwaway71958) Sure. But if that's what you really think, then you don't get to assume that the DNC was hacked "by the Russians". Agreed?

>> (doktrin) Are you saying there's some letter written in broken english that's being used as proof of Russian involvement in the DNC hacks?

>> (jessaustin) Now that we know the "tools used" "proof" is worthless because CIA uses those tools too, is there anything else?

>> (doktrin) What does that have to do with my point about inferring identity based on textual clues in this blog post?

Which brings us back to the present - as you can see, it's you and throwaway who are trying to derail the thread at the last minute with red herrings about the DNC hacks. I'm not sure why you feel like it's super relevant here.

> Bonus points: you've used the phrase "paid shills" twice!

Again : you're confused. I used the phrase once (the other "use" you're thinking of was obviously a citation)

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#279

Post by suls »

kbenson wrote: post #33
itchyjunk wrote: post #17

Asking a president to do x,y or z by making this type of public statement probably implies it's geared towards the immediate readers and not some leader that might read it. The security agencies might have made a lot of enemy over the years so it's not clear who benefits from this. Either financially or as ego boost. The internet is definitely bigger that what most people might have predicted 20 years ago. So its not…

The cynical and conspiracy theory believing person might suspect that regardless of all the reasons stated for the release the last one, namely the attack in Syria, is the only one that actually prompted this. I don't necessarily subscribe to the whole "Russia is controlling everything" line (there still so much that's unknown for sure), but it sure is easy to see a connection between Trump launching missiles against…

> [..] with an embarrassing and costly release of secret information belonging to the security apparatus in the U.S. by what many people say is a front for the Russian security apparatus.

I have difficulties interpreting your statement. Are you implying US security services are "a front for the rudsian security apparatus"?

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#280

Post by Dylan16807 »

M_Grey wrote: post #183
noobermin wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is "discrimination" to be suspicious of state actors? Was Snowden performing discrimination in exposing the NSA's spying?

Did you reply to the correct person? I never said anything about discrimination, nor did the person I was replying to.

Prejudice and discrimination are close enough to synonyms. You shouldn't be confused by the word swap.
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