What I want to know is if this search tool is the backend for the "parallel construction" application forms[1] from earlier this year? [1] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140203/11143926078/paral...
Possibly, among other things.
The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
41–50 of 93 posts
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#42Is it just me, or is it tragicomical that I can't access firstlook from a government network?
According to the Intercept, the U.S Military has banned employees from visiting First Look because there could be classified information on the site. [1] [2] (extra source since you can't see the real one..) Maybe that is what you are experiencing? [1] https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/20/u-s-military-b... [2] https://thebulletwire.com/u-s-military-bans-glenn-greenwalds...
That's similar to the wikileaks ban. I don't understand this policy: If something is accessible virtually from everywhere, what do you gain by not allowing your employees to access the info?!
The only thing I can think of, is internal issues at political level (who said what lies to whom to achieve more funding about his work, etc.) which even that won't take long before the interested party eventually finds out.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#43Somewhat OT but its amazing out of 3 "FTEs" 1 was for design ("GUI") and this is what they came up with. [1] pg 22 https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/08/25/shari...
Also notice the entire screen shot. Netscape on Windows XP in, best we can tell, sometime after March 2006. Netscape. With an AIM launcher in the status bar. Accessing TOP SECRET//COMINT//NOFORN resources.
Maybe all software released after this is infested with spyware and exploits, and we are just led to believe it's the other way around
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#44Is anyone else puzzled that stories about the NSA are accepted as gospel fact when posted on Hacker News?
The Reality Distortion Field appears, and people believe, because they want to believe.
It depresses me, the lack of intelligent discourse.
Most tech people I meet actually believe that the NSA records and stores all telephone calls. It's depressingly stupid, but I have given up arguing, logic and sense are not welcome when the NSA is the topic.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#45Is anyone else puzzled that stories about the NSA are accepted as gospel fact when posted on Hacker News? The Reality Distortion Field appears, and people believe, because they want to believe. It depresses me, the lack of intelligent discourse. Most tech people I meet actually believe that the NSA records and stores all telephone calls. It's depressingly stupid, but I have given up arguing, logic and sense are not w…
Perhaps proof to the contrary would be more useful than the veracity or logic of an argument?
Unfortunately, with the NSA, independently verifiable proof of anything, especially doing the right thing, is impossible to attain.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#46Wonder how and where they recruit their top-talent. Pretty much every top scorer in my school went to Facebook/Google/Msft/Amzn. The mediocre ones went to Northrop Grumman/Raytheon/Rockwell and the like.
The best programmer I know works for Northrop, because you can make >$100K and live in a rural or semirural area (near an AFB), you can have $1000/mo rent, vs living in SF making $150K and having massively higher expenses and have to be far away from "home".
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Glenn Greenwald has a lot of Powerpoint slides. Am I the only one who wants to see the source code for ICREACH, and all the other ALLCAPS projects?
I wonder if that's a line even Snowden wouldn't cross. It risks those tools falling into the "wrong hands", and is the most extreme way he could be said to be aiding terrorists by alerting them of our intelligence capabilities (which he is already accused of.)
Its not new news that Google was contracted to build the search engine[1].
"Google was also contracted to provide the search technology and servers which makes up “Intellipedia”, a massive, incredibly secure database through which over 100,000 United States spies and intelligence professionals from 16 government agencies share information. And the NSA has purchased numerous servers from Google, utilizing their search technology to analyze and organize massive amounts of secure data all over the world."
At this point I think it safe to assume its the exact same code Google used in 2010, just a bit dumber, since Googles search engine only learns by being used, and since there are far fewer using it, it learns slower.
[1]http://questioneverything2012.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/googl...
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Glenn Greenwald got a treasure trove and it's time to cash in.
Glenn Greenwald has a lot of Powerpoint slides. Am I the only one who wants to see the source code for ICREACH, and all the other ALLCAPS projects?
I'd be more interested in seeing all the open source software it uses, as I'm sure it does and whether it has funded open source software development which I am not sure of but I can imagine happening indirectly and whether the programmers were aware or not which I imagine not happening.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#49It's kind of remarkable that they kept the lid on this on long as they did. With so many local/loosely-related agencies involved, I'm surprised somebody didn't leak this much sooner.
Yes, I find it VERY hard to believe that this went on and nobody mentioned it at all. Not one disgruntled employee, not anyone mentioning it to a friend at a bar? No way.
Re: The Surveillance Engine: How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google
#50This has been released and is use by almost two dozen federal agencies and now is the first time we're hearing about it?
When folks tell us crazy things, like the government is tracking every place you go and your opinions through your cell phone and social networks, we're supposed to say something like "That's extraordinary. With extraordinary claims, we require extraordinary proof" Then, if they persist, we're supposed to say something like "Such a program would require far too many people to keep a secret. We couldn't even keep the atom bomb a secret. The government is terrible at keeping secrets. Such a claim is just too far-fetched."
These are the traditional things taught to people who are supposed to be clear-headed and rational. It's the way we engage crackpots without taking them too seriously.
These responses seem to have failed us miserably in the current circumstances. As it turns out, yes, that's what they were doing, and yes, it was extraordinary and required lots of people to keep incredible secrets. But it still happened.
These things keep happening in the realm of automated surveillance, both by the government and corporations (and worse, when corps do it and the govt scoops it all up later) that would have been considered completely whacked just ten years ago. The stuff of paranoid fantasies.
Our tools of rational inquiry have failed us.