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Re: Yandex Mail

#91

Post by happycube »

omni wrote: post #79
huhtenberg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are that worried about NSA spying on you, make sure you are not running Windows. Because, you know, routine software updates is just what the doctor ordered for on-demand installation of backdoors.

I know very little about how Linux works internally, and I use proprietary video card drivers in Ubuntu. Given Linux's internal handling of driver binaries, how much damage would these be able to cause if they contained malicious code?

Quite a bit - not total kernel access, given the GPL symbol table export restrictions, but at least as much as a process running as root in user space.

That said, it's quite likely that such malicious behavior would be detected by somebody.

Re: Yandex Mail

#92

Post by guelo »

tptacek wrote: post #78
guelo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe that was a bit of an overstatement on my part unless you're a middle eastener. But they've proven over and over that they'll throw out the laws when it inconveniences them.

What's the example that most sticks out in your head of the US throwing out its own laws?

Maybe warrant-less mass eavesdropping. Though admittedly they did give everybody retroactive immunity once they got found out.

Re: Yandex Mail

#93

Post by akiselev »

anonymous wrote: post #53
jbattle wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unless you make a yacht for someone the russians would like to track or listen in on

I'd be much more comfortable having the Russian mafia targeting me than I'd be with the NSA spying on me. You can pay the mafia.

I think you're conflating television with reality. You don't give or pay the Russian mafia, they take what they want. The Russian government (Russia is a "virtual mafia state" [1] so gov't == mafia) is responsible for some of the most visible politically motivated assassinations and scams in the world. I.e., look at the use of polonium to assassinate Litvinenko in London (the assassin suspected by the British gov't is now in the Russian parliament) [2] or the use of police and official stationary to steal $230 million by quietly signing over companies owned by Hermitage Capital Management [3].

The NSA, as secretive and as evil as it may become, is still a US government agency run by Americans with a moral code. The same cannot be said for the KGB (colloquial for FSB), Russian government, or Russian organized crime (all three of which are pretty much inseparable).

It's far less likely that they'll care about you but if they do notice something that they want, you're fucked.

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinen...

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky

Re: Yandex Mail

#94

Post by tptacek »

SeanDav wrote: post #83
tptacek wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that's happened when, in American history?

I presume you have heard of McCarthyism? There are many, many examples of American abuses on American citizens, where innocent people lost their jobs, friends, families and even lives because of what they believed, or even what the American Government thought they believed. Imagine the McCarthyism mindset combined with today's surveillance culture and the disaster that would be.

McCarthyism is a good point. I agree.

Re: Yandex Mail

#95

Post by temphn »

tptacek wrote: post #90
temphn wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Catch 22. Worth remembering that this is a secret program, governed by "secret law", run by secret police, with strong penalties (including international manhunts) for those who expose abuses. You want us to rattle off incidents? Then start by giving whistleblowers immunity to actually report abuses. The "secret law" part is the one that really floors me. The FISA court orders are themselves secret. Ignorance of the…

The FISA cases that authorize surveillance are secret. Laws used to prosecute people are not.

Who's prosecuted? They are just disappeared via extraordinary rendition.

https://twitter.com/SCClemons/status/343549654916542464

Re: Yandex Mail

#97

Post by temphn »

tptacek wrote: post #71
mtgx wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory. In practice, they spy on you for a week, and then obtain a warrant because they have "probable cause", taken from all the spying.

Is that how it happens in practice? Interesting. Where can I read more about how data from FISA warrants are used to build probable cause for domestic criminal cases?

http://uncrunched.com/2013/06/11/connecting-the-prism-dots-m...

See links to primary sources, including David Kravets:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/spy-court-stats/

Re: Yandex Mail

#98

Post by tptacek »

temphn wrote: post #95
tptacek wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FISA cases that authorize surveillance are secret. Laws used to prosecute people are not.

Who's prosecuted? They are just disappeared via extraordinary rendition. https://twitter.com/SCClemons/status/343549654916542464

For context: you're referring to Steve Clemons reporting on overhearing a bunch of people affiliated in some way with foreign intelligence services babbling at an airport about how Snowden should captured or killed.

When I hear someone who works for the USG talk about how we should turn some supposed adversary of the US into glass with a barrage of nuclear missiles, I do not immediately fear for the future of the planet.

I hope the people Clemens overheard are identified.

Re: Yandex Mail

#99

Post by tptacek »

temphn wrote: post #97
tptacek wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that how it happens in practice? Interesting. Where can I read more about how data from FISA warrants are used to build probable cause for domestic criminal cases?

http://uncrunched.com/2013/06/11/connecting-the-prism-dots-m... See links to primary sources, including David Kravets: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/spy-court-stats/

I read the Kravets piece at your recommendation only to find that there was no mention in it of anyone using data obtained through FISA to build domestic criminal cases of any sort.

Re: Yandex Mail

#100

Post by cema »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #30
eli wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually a Yakov Smirnoff joke, but either way it doesn't really advance the conversation very much.

Yup, the original was: “In America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, Party always finds you!” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Smirnoff#Russian_reversa...

I have always thought it was all his pun on: "Under capitalism, a man exploits a man. Under socialism, it's the other way around!" But I may have been mistaken.
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