As someone who is not that savvy about malware or persistent software calling "home," what is the best operating system that will avoid these type of attacks?
Qubes
Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
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Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#32As someone who is not that savvy about malware or persistent software calling "home," what is the best operating system that will avoid these type of attacks?
TempleOS or any operating system with networking disabled via hardware switch.
Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#33Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#34Why is there a judgement on the CIA's actions everytime a tool is leaked? It's their charter to spy on people, the targets being American or not is just semantic. For instance, if an American is a person of interest, the only thing required is for the FBI to be a (name sake) participant in the investigation.
Outrage against 3 letter security/intelligence agencies is silly, it's like blaming Google for being great at search
Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#35This type of thing might be very useful for preventing CIA's Harold Martin counterparts from leaking from CIA hardware.
Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#36To me, these stories are a) vital, and b) dis-heartening, and c) demonstrative of the fact that we need to continue to build better, open and secure, operating systems and tools for end users. I think there is definitely something to be said for the fact that if the CIA is doing this, then criminals are too - since the fine line between what the CIA does and what a criminal does is simply, a sheet of paper with someo…
> For those of us not living under the CIA's nefarious shadow The CIA's mission is foreign intelligence meaning they operate outside the US. Since it sounds like you're not in the US, you are far more likely to be targeted by the CIA (still very unlikely unless you work for a government) than people living in the US.
The CIA doesn't work for me. It works for Americans. Not everyone is happy with having an agency for which their sovereign is not responsible, nevertheless influencing their lives in a big way.
Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#37To me, these stories are a) vital, and b) dis-heartening, and c) demonstrative of the fact that we need to continue to build better, open and secure, operating systems and tools for end users. I think there is definitely something to be said for the fact that if the CIA is doing this, then criminals are too - since the fine line between what the CIA does and what a criminal does is simply, a sheet of paper with someo…
I am curious as to what you believe the CIA is supposed to be doing?
The CIA is supposed to be projecting Americas' force around the world, covertly, for the good of the American people.
This is not necessarily good for humanity.
Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#38This honestly doesn't sound very interesting. Just a regular piece of software using a few of many available location services that are based on SSID scanning. Mozilla for example offers the same: https://location.services.mozilla.com/
The interesting thing about it is not so much how it works as what they do with it: presumably track individuals' locations without their knowledge.
Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For those of us not living under the CIA's nefarious shadow The CIA's mission is foreign intelligence meaning they operate outside the US. Since it sounds like you're not in the US, you are far more likely to be targeted by the CIA (still very unlikely unless you work for a government) than people living in the US.
The CIA doesn't work for me. It works for Americans. Not everyone is happy with having an agency for which their sovereign is not responsible, nevertheless influencing their lives in a big way.
The intelligence services of your country most likely have the same technologies available.
Re: Wikileaks reveals CIA's Elsa: a geo-location malware for WiFi / Windows
#40Why is there a judgement on the CIA's actions everytime a tool is leaked? It's their charter to spy on people, the targets being American or not is just semantic. For instance, if an American is a person of interest, the only thing required is for the FBI to be a (name sake) participant in the investigation. Outrage against 3 letter security/intelligence agencies is silly, it's like blaming Google for being great at…
right, but not everybody lives in the us. and of course, their spy agencies dont spy :P
it's also interesting hearing the outrage about russian hacking, and the outrage about the cia having the abilities to hack. I hope it's not the same people complaining.