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Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

nytimes.com

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Re: Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

#91

Post by retailbuyout »

bsder wrote: post #85
Wonnk13 wrote: post #44

Living in Maryland, I've met several young people who put in a few years at the agency (including TAO) who then left for industry. Millenials don't care about a government pension, especially when you're in a windowless SCIF hacking Perl. The US Government as a whole has a massive talent retention problem. Only the mediocre will stay at NSA / CIA now and we'll probably see more of these leaks / hacks.

> The US Government as a whole has a massive talent retention problem. Only the mediocre will stay at NSA / CIA now and we'll probably see more of these leaks / hacks. The CIA were never noted for being the sharpest of government agencies ... However, the NSA generally had a very good reputation. The big problem with the NSA is who wants to work in a place where you can't actually talk about what you do? The primary…

What the hell are they doing spying on american citizens? The people you’ll attract are the people attracted to abusing said power. Good luck weeding out the creeps; let’s hope only a few die as the result of beuracratic negligence.

Re: Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

#93

Post by retailbuyout »

wolf550e wrote: post #75
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very frankly believe one of the more patriotic things an American with the ability can do is emulate Snowden, i.e. infiltrate and expose the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs.

But it's not patriotic to give NSA tools to the Russians, to hurt the ability of the NSA to spy on Russia.

Wtf does patriotic have to do with anything but mass manipulation?

These weapons are not designed to be patriotic; they can just as easily hurt anyone.

Re: Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

#94

Post by retailbuyout »

meowface wrote: post #68
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NSA is also responsible for establishing computer security practices for the rest of the government to follow. That they don't eat their own dogfood is damning.

They do typically eat their own dogfood when it comes to the security practices they propose. Dual_EC_DRBG is the big exception, but it's generally considered that most of the rest of their cryptographic standards are secure and suitable for public and government use. There are likely many conflicting departments and teams within NSA. Many are probably trying to fight for the public's security and have for years, wit…

> Many are probably trying to fight for the public's security and have for years, with cryptographers earnestly trying to develop secure and efficient algorithms. They are probably at odds with the other forces in the organization that seek to play the espionage game, even if it puts the country at risk.

Directly at odds. I don’t believe you should encourage anyone to trust known espionage. If it’s good advice, someone else will say it too you can trust independently.

Re: Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

#95

Post by 1001101 »

meowface wrote: post #72

I wonder why there don't seem to be leaks like these at other superpowers' intelligence/security organizations, like China's and Russia's? Is it the threat of torture/execution (and perhaps the same being done to their family)? Heightened fears due to stronger monitoring of employees? Or genuine loyalty / indoctrination?

From my perspective, on one side, they messed up on compartmentalization/access control. On the other side, the US is and should be held to a higher standard than China or Russia. Insiders are sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution, and when they see secret mass warrantless surveillance, and wars fought on dubious pretenses, one has to decide if you follow orders or do what you think is right by the Constitution. Additionally, from what I have seen, and I think this was pointed out by Ed Snowden, whistleblowers have been strongly disincentivized to use official internal channels. I don't know how Russia and China do it, but the US's open and free society has always been the source of its strength, and I hope it continues to be so.

Re: Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

#96

Post by greenleafjacob »

_8j50 wrote: post #79
ethbro wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be your person opinion, given that the militaries of the US, the UK, China, Russia, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Spain, etc. (probably easier to name those that haven't) have officially performed such actions, with the soldiers in question receiving official honors and rewards?

Their soldiers shot their own people and received rewards? I find that hard to believe. Or did you mean computer attacks? In communist and authoritarian nations, monitoring what the people are doing is normal(to account for potential dissent),but they would also shoot/imprison their own people over political dissent. Maybe the U.S. is no better than those nations. Still doesn't make it right. If a soldier does not pr…

Tiennamen Square...

Re: Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

#98

Post by daxorid »

natch wrote: post #17

One thing that is not talked about enough with NSA is that if they are capable of leaking some of their most sensitive and powerful tools, then they are also capable of leaking the most sensitive and private information they collect on people. Perhaps this has not yet happened, or perhaps it has (someone will no doubt point out any known incidents here if there are any) but the idea is unnerving. Maybe my wording is…

Exfiltration is a problem. It's more difficult to exfil terabytes of individual citizen dossiers than ~2GB of malware, implants, tools, scripts, etc from classified and possibly even SCIF environments.

Or it could be more prosaic than that: Money. The market value of NSA tooling is likely far far higher than the threat assessments of Joe Blow Smith in Hoboken, NJ.

Re: Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

#99

Post by forapurpose »

Spooky23 wrote: post #80
Wonnk13 wrote: post #44

Living in Maryland, I've met several young people who put in a few years at the agency (including TAO) who then left for industry. Millenials don't care about a government pension, especially when you're in a windowless SCIF hacking Perl. The US Government as a whole has a massive talent retention problem. Only the mediocre will stay at NSA / CIA now and we'll probably see more of these leaks / hacks.

Federal pay sucks by design. If you want to work for .gov, you want state/local government. The Feds want to contract out for anything they can. So you work for Lockheed or whatever and get most of the attributes of government employment.

> Federal pay sucks by design. If you want to work for .gov, you want state/local government

State and local government employees are paid well? Where? Which ones?

Re: Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A.

#100

Post by forapurpose »

meowface wrote: post #72

I wonder why there don't seem to be leaks like these at other superpowers' intelligence/security organizations, like China's and Russia's? Is it the threat of torture/execution (and perhaps the same being done to their family)? Heightened fears due to stronger monitoring of employees? Or genuine loyalty / indoctrination?

> I wonder why there don't seem to be leaks like these at other superpowers' intelligence/security organizations, like China's and Russia's?

I think we just don't know what happens. I would be surprised if an article like this one would appear in the Chinese or Russian press. And if you were an American journalist, would you really want to touch the leaked FIS material? The First Amendment won't protect you.

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