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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

#81

Post by benwilber0 »

ktta wrote: post #69
ooqr wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that was GP's point. The text is intentionally garbled with no identifiable first-language bias.

Not really. The GP is implying that they are Russian with this >since they can't just say "I work for Russia and we're reminding America that they're not invulnerable." But the person who replied is saying how the grammatical obfuscation doesn't look like something that's done by a Russian but by an English speaker who is trying to sound like a Russian with bad English. Because a Russian with bad English wouldn't mak…

> I work for Russia ...

does not imply it was done by a Russian.

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

#82

Post by throwaway71958 »

ktta wrote: post #69
ooqr wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that was GP's point. The text is intentionally garbled with no identifiable first-language bias.

Not really. The GP is implying that they are Russian with this >since they can't just say "I work for Russia and we're reminding America that they're not invulnerable." But the person who replied is saying how the grammatical obfuscation doesn't look like something that's done by a Russian but by an English speaker who is trying to sound like a Russian with bad English. Because a Russian with bad English wouldn't mak…

To my ear, this obfuscation sounds Middle Eastern, due to the frequent use of "-ing" in verbs whether it belongs there or not. I know an Iranian guy who does this a lot.

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

#83

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway71958 wrote: post #40
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #26

It's pretty fascinating to read the Shadow Broker's posts. They have to write something, since they can't just say "I work for Russia and we're reminding America that they're not invulnerable." So they have to come up with all sorts of contrived reasons about why they're doing this, complete with broken english to fool stylometry detection that walks the fine line between being believable and preposterous. Someone sp…

As a Russian myself, I can tell you with certainty that there are mistakes in that text that a Russian ESL speaker would never make, and verb tenses are a bit too good for an unskilled speaker. Due to the combination of these two factors, I bet this was written by a native English speaker who thinks he/she knows the mistakes a Russian would make. They're wrong.

[deleted]

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

#84

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

doktrin wrote: post #66
paradite wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Widely documented by "The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence", the most obvious enemy of Russia? Human rights violations in the U.S. are also well documented by China: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/06/26/china-issues-r...

The US does legitimately have an imperfect human rights track record, and most Americans who follow the news would agree (while at the same time being aware of China's own hypocrisy in this matter) Likewise, Russia has a well documented history of sponsoring online propaganda campaigns, and most people who aren't delusional or paid shills would agree. Two negative things about two different countries can in fact both…

It should be obvious that the USA is not a singular political whole.

So why do we say "the Russians" and "the Chinese" as though they each form a political whole.

I mean, we know the CIA gets up to some pretty nefarious shenanigans, quite possibly without the express approval of The Administration.

It just seems like a lot of pots sitting around talking about how black the kettles are. Sure, some kettles are blacker than some pots.

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

#85

Post by mavdi »

Given the latest world events, I've personally come to realise that security agencies play an important role in keeping us safe, from external entities or from ourselves.

This is disaster in my (current) opinion. We tend to dismiss the work the likes of NSA do, not thinking much about what would happen if they didn't do it. Snowden categorically dismissing anything that NSA does, just means he's a deluded idealist, much like I used to be.

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

#86

Post by M_Grey »

doktrin wrote: post #60
kafkaesq wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW Snowden speculates "Circumstantial evidence and conventional wisdom indicates Russian responsibility. Here's why that is significant" - https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/765514891813945344

That 13-point tweet series paints a surprisingly plausible picture. I'm looking forward to getting the full story in about 20 years time.

We'll be very lucky if in 20 years, the world is still so free and functional as it is now... and I'm not trying to talk up the state of the world today.

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

#87

Post by M_Grey »

burkaman wrote: post #75
snowpanda wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the popular thing to assume these days. It's also very insulting to Russian people in my opinion. But I guess it's ok to be prejudice towards some group of people but not others.

This is a discussion about the Russian government, it doesn't really have much to do with Russian people in general.

That sentence is correct however you read it out.

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

#88

Post by cyberpunk »

mavdi wrote: post #85

Given the latest world events, I've personally come to realise that security agencies play an important role in keeping us safe, from external entities or from ourselves. This is disaster in my (current) opinion. We tend to dismiss the work the likes of NSA do, not thinking much about what would happen if they didn't do it. Snowden categorically dismissing anything that NSA does, just means he's a deluded idealist, m…

I don't think he dismissed anything, he simply exposed what is currently happening.

We make a kind of deal with our governments, some things we agree to be kept in the dark about for security reasons (specific intelligence or some clandestine operation or other) but I don't think that deal covers the kind of surveillance snowden exposed and I don't see at all how exposing the actions of our governments is deluded or idealistic: can you elaborate?

Why would you prefer not to know what your government is doing when knowing doesn't break the 'willful ignorance' contract we entrust these people with?

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

#89

Post by zzzcpan »

throwaway71958 wrote: post #79
ooqr wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that was GP's point. The text is intentionally garbled with no identifiable first-language bias.

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 "Ne…

While this is true, it doesn't mean that they don't work for Russia or even live outside of the US.

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

#90

Post by benwilber0 »

throwaway71958 wrote: post #79
ooqr wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that was GP's point. The text is intentionally garbled with no identifiable first-language bias.

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 "Ne…

> the author seems to be well versed in the memes of the US political discourse

that's not exactly hard for anyone that payed even a little attention during the very controversial US political season in 2016. Same with Brexit. The terminologies and crux issues have been widely debated on the social web. I would say it has actually been very difficult to escape

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