NSA Surveillance
#1
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NSA Surveillance
I am surprised there hasn't been a thread about this yet. Anyways, new stuff over the weekend, thought I would share:
US Gov't striking a deal with US telecoms to partner with foreign telecoms, get access to their data, and reroute it to the NSA.
I have to say, I have always been suspicious of government monitoring since 2005-ish, but this has been extremely surprising and scary. Anyone else?
US Gov't striking a deal with US telecoms to partner with foreign telecoms, get access to their data, and reroute it to the NSA.
I have to say, I have always been suspicious of government monitoring since 2005-ish, but this has been extremely surprising and scary. Anyone else?
#2
I'm a terrible person
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1. Snowden is a ******* dumbass.
2. Right now is the perfect time for any person (foreign govs) to drop "information from snowden" to any newspaper outlet that is willing to run the story. No matter how false.
3. People are willing to believe what they want to believe very easily ("Oh I always knew the gov was spying on me!!).
2. Right now is the perfect time for any person (foreign govs) to drop "information from snowden" to any newspaper outlet that is willing to run the story. No matter how false.
3. People are willing to believe what they want to believe very easily ("Oh I always knew the gov was spying on me!!).
#5
What I think is funny is that everyone is acting like the U.S. is the only country that monitors its citizens to this degree. With the technological age we are in do you really think that a government is not going to use surveillance on its own citizens for the purposes of national security?
I am not saying that they listen to my actual phone calls or conversations. But I never made a call and thought, "You know I bet no one could find out I made this call." I also knowhow many security camera's are everywhere that can be accessed remotely. Anyone who thought this was not going on to some degree before the leak was just being naïve.
I am not saying that they listen to my actual phone calls or conversations. But I never made a call and thought, "You know I bet no one could find out I made this call." I also knowhow many security camera's are everywhere that can be accessed remotely. Anyone who thought this was not going on to some degree before the leak was just being naïve.
#7
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1. Snowden is a ******* dumbass.
2. Right now is the perfect time for any person (foreign govs) to drop "information from snowden" to any newspaper outlet that is willing to run the story. No matter how false.
3. People are willing to believe what they want to believe very easily ("Oh I always knew the gov was spying on me!!).
2. Right now is the perfect time for any person (foreign govs) to drop "information from snowden" to any newspaper outlet that is willing to run the story. No matter how false.
3. People are willing to believe what they want to believe very easily ("Oh I always knew the gov was spying on me!!).
Its hard to say its false when the government isn't denying it...
What I think is funny is that everyone is acting like the U.S. is the only country that monitors its citizens to this degree. With the technological age we are in do you really think that a government is not going to use surveillance on its own citizens for the purposes of national security?
I am not saying that they listen to my actual phone calls or conversations. But I never made a call and thought, "You know I bet no one could find out I made this call." I also knowhow many security camera's are everywhere that can be accessed remotely. Anyone who thought this was not going on to some degree before the leak was just being naïve.
I am not saying that they listen to my actual phone calls or conversations. But I never made a call and thought, "You know I bet no one could find out I made this call." I also knowhow many security camera's are everywhere that can be accessed remotely. Anyone who thought this was not going on to some degree before the leak was just being naïve.
#10
The extent of NSA spying is no surprise. These 4 books are from 1983 through 2009:
Amazon.com: James Bamford: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
LOL @ people who distrust the gov't when it comes to Obamacare, taxes et al, yet believe the politicians when they say "our foreign policy of bombing brown people is good for you" or "we spy on you to protect you".
Doublethink FTW.
Amazon.com: James Bamford: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
LOL @ people who distrust the gov't when it comes to Obamacare, taxes et al, yet believe the politicians when they say "our foreign policy of bombing brown people is good for you" or "we spy on you to protect you".
Doublethink FTW.
#13
What I think is funny is that everyone is acting like the U.S. is the only country that monitors its citizens to this degree. With the technological age we are in do you really think that a government is not going to use surveillance on its own citizens for the purposes of national security?
With the concentration of information companies in one country the NSA is monitoring most of the worlds citizens, and other countries are envious that they lack the same access.
But soon we will have one of the FB server farms within our borders...
What's the NSA bot called on MT?
#15
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I have to cast my lot here with the "... and this surprises you?" crowd.
It is in the nature of intel-gathering agencies to gather intel.
SIGINT, in particular, has been going on for decades. Both the CIA and the NSA are extremely good at it, and when a new technology (packet-based routing) comes along with promises to make the job even easier, it seems kind of unrealistic to me to expect that this would not be taken advantage of.
Heck, the fact that they're asking permission actually surprises me. In the old days, they'd just go down there with a minisub and tap the trans-oceanic cables directly. (see Operation Ivy Bells, USS Halibut, etc.) Also, see ECHELON for satellite-based mass surveillance dating back to the 1960s.
What I don't see is any indication whatsoever that the content of domestic communications are being monitored, recorded, etc. This seems like just business as usual.
Hustler.
It malfunctions frequently.
It is in the nature of intel-gathering agencies to gather intel.
SIGINT, in particular, has been going on for decades. Both the CIA and the NSA are extremely good at it, and when a new technology (packet-based routing) comes along with promises to make the job even easier, it seems kind of unrealistic to me to expect that this would not be taken advantage of.
Heck, the fact that they're asking permission actually surprises me. In the old days, they'd just go down there with a minisub and tap the trans-oceanic cables directly. (see Operation Ivy Bells, USS Halibut, etc.) Also, see ECHELON for satellite-based mass surveillance dating back to the 1960s.
What I don't see is any indication whatsoever that the content of domestic communications are being monitored, recorded, etc. This seems like just business as usual.
Hustler.
It malfunctions frequently.
#16
In one possible future, terrorists exploited the weapons grade plutonium the Doc stashed in his DeLorean.
Generate more NSA friendly phrases here!
But seriously, this was the worst kept secret in the NSA. The great thing about google is we can go back and search old time periods, filtering anything recent, to see that this was ineed a poorly kept secret.
Generate more NSA friendly phrases here!
But seriously, this was the worst kept secret in the NSA. The great thing about google is we can go back and search old time periods, filtering anything recent, to see that this was ineed a poorly kept secret.
#20
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Maybe more interesting to some people is the use of surveilance by private companies and the intersection of private firms and government agencies.
The Real War on Reality - NYTimes.com
The Real War on Reality - NYTimes.com
To get some perspective on the manipulative role that private intelligence agencies play in our society, it is worth examining information that has been revealed by some significant hacks in the past few years of previously secret data.
Important insight into the world these companies came from a 2010 hack by a group best known as LulzSec (at the time the group was called Internet Feds), which targeted the private intelligence firm HBGary Federal. That hack yielded 75,000 e-mails. It revealed, for example, that Bank of America approached the Department of Justice over concerns about information that WikiLeaks had about it. The Department of Justice in turn referred Bank of America to the lobbying firm Hunton and Willliams, which in turn connected the bank with a group of information security firms collectively known as Team Themis.
Team Themis (a group that included HBGary and the private intelligence and security firms Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and Endgame Systems) was effectively brought in to find a way to undermine the credibility of WikiLeaks and the journalist Glenn Greenwald (who recently broke the story of Edward Snowden’s leak of the N.S.A.’s Prism program), because of Greenwald’s support for WikiLeaks. Specifically, the plan called for actions to “sabotage or discredit the opposing organization” including a plan to submit fake documents and then call out the error. As for Greenwald, it was argued that he would cave “if pushed” because he would “choose professional preservation over cause.” That evidently wasn’t the case.
Important insight into the world these companies came from a 2010 hack by a group best known as LulzSec (at the time the group was called Internet Feds), which targeted the private intelligence firm HBGary Federal. That hack yielded 75,000 e-mails. It revealed, for example, that Bank of America approached the Department of Justice over concerns about information that WikiLeaks had about it. The Department of Justice in turn referred Bank of America to the lobbying firm Hunton and Willliams, which in turn connected the bank with a group of information security firms collectively known as Team Themis.
Team Themis (a group that included HBGary and the private intelligence and security firms Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and Endgame Systems) was effectively brought in to find a way to undermine the credibility of WikiLeaks and the journalist Glenn Greenwald (who recently broke the story of Edward Snowden’s leak of the N.S.A.’s Prism program), because of Greenwald’s support for WikiLeaks. Specifically, the plan called for actions to “sabotage or discredit the opposing organization” including a plan to submit fake documents and then call out the error. As for Greenwald, it was argued that he would cave “if pushed” because he would “choose professional preservation over cause.” That evidently wasn’t the case.