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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really, he'd be risking whats left of his life by doing so. There's also rather little reason for Snowden to bother commenting on the very widely known abuses by Russian government, what could he possibly have to offer on that topic that hasn't already been said?
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Earlier quoted context omitted.
NSAs collection capabilities have been greatly degraded. They can no longer read all internet traffic, basically everything is encrypted now. NSA does not have magic tools to break modern encryption.
They don't break encryption, they circumvent it. They get into people's computers and access the stored data after it's been decrypted. They stockpile zero day vulnerabilities and use them against their targets in order to install persistent malware. They intercept equipment and literally implant hardware onto the PCBs that let them access the networks. They have access to hordes of government CCTVs. They have real t…
They can easily go after specific targets, but bulk collection is no longer viable in the same way it was pre-Snowden.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>So instead of collecting at AT&T Room 631 you now collect at Google Room Whatever. Even if true, significantly degraded. Probably not true though, NSA has been very leaky and such a story would be kind of devastating for Google. NSA lacks the legal capability to force Google to do so, the money to bribe Google to do so and also almost certainly lacks the political backing to put one of the biggest US companies in su…
Google, along with all other major service providers, has a legal portal so law enforcement can process warrant orders. I think all you have to do is hack that portal or process.
Neither of these approaches would enable bulk collection.
I'm sure the NSA can read essentially any specific emails they're interested in, they just can't do so at anywhere near the scale they used to pre-Snowden.
Not only that, these days almost all chats have moved to E2EE platforms. Reading that traffic in a stealthy manner requires compromising endpoints, bulk collection simply isn't possible.
Being familiar with the USG classification system, I was thrown off by the beginning of this article. It doesn't sound like something that would be classified merely as Secret. The article begins with: > XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a secret computer system used by... This should be edited to: > XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a classified computer system used by... The program is allegedly a Top Secret program.
How relevant is this (and the NSA's general spying capability) in 2025? We hear a lot about local agencies perusing the services of private companies to collect citizens' data in the US, whether that's traffic information, IoT recordings, buying information from FAANG, etc. What's the NSA's position in the current administration? (e.g. we've heard a lot of noise in the past about the FBI and CIA getting the cold shou…
NSAs collection capabilities have been greatly degraded. They can no longer read all internet traffic, basically everything is encrypted now. NSA does not have magic tools to break modern encryption.
They don't. But they have other options.
For example, Cloudflare is an American company that has plaintext access to the traffic of many sites. Cloudflare can be compelled to secretly share anything the NSA want.
How relevant is this (and the NSA's general spying capability) in 2025? We hear a lot about local agencies perusing the services of private companies to collect citizens' data in the US, whether that's traffic information, IoT recordings, buying information from FAANG, etc. What's the NSA's position in the current administration? (e.g. we've heard a lot of noise in the past about the FBI and CIA getting the cold shou…
NSAs collection capabilities have been greatly degraded. They can no longer read all internet traffic, basically everything is encrypted now. NSA does not have magic tools to break modern encryption.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't break encryption, they circumvent it. They get into people's computers and access the stored data after it's been decrypted. They stockpile zero day vulnerabilities and use them against their targets in order to install persistent malware. They intercept equipment and literally implant hardware onto the PCBs that let them access the networks. They have access to hordes of government CCTVs. They have real t…
This is all in line with significantly degraded collection capabilities. They can easily go after specific targets, but bulk collection is no longer viable in the same way it was pre-Snowden.
Degraded would be "it is impossible for them to know anything about people unless they send dozens of human agents to stalk them".
Being familiar with the USG classification system, I was thrown off by the beginning of this article. It doesn't sound like something that would be classified merely as Secret. The article begins with: > XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a secret computer system used by... This should be edited to: > XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a classified computer system used by... The program is allegedly a Top Secret program.
Then edit it, it's Wikipedia!
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Discospinster#WTF_ed...?
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Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is all in line with significantly degraded collection capabilities. They can easily go after specific targets, but bulk collection is no longer viable in the same way it was pre-Snowden.
Yes but I wouldn't say their capabilities have been "greatly" degraded. It's still very much in the "push a button and have someone's entire life history up on the screen" territory. Degraded would be "it is impossible for them to know anything about people unless they send dozens of human agents to stalk them".
The first approach enabled them to find targets that were not on their radar based on message contents, they can no longer do that.