'It is disappointing that the government secretly did this stuff' This was the week when legendary security mailing list Full Disclosure closed down after 12 years when admin John Cartwright threw in the towel in utter exasperation. The service where security researchers could post details of exploits and vulnerabilities is closing after Cartwright reached the end of his tether with running …
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@John : yes the "skiddies" aren't what they used to be.
@MtGox : humorous but cruel ... and Mr T says 'Pity the fool'
@Elon Musk : indeed vested interest and politics who will win? My bet would go with the vested interest.
@Snowdon : milking the limelight for all it is worth, apart from revealing 'ways and means' not much in the way of revelation. The bit I don't understand is why folks feel the Internet is any different from the 'real world'?
@Marc : Oooo there are times I so wish my understanding was better. More importantly when is this going to have a practical application like say a machine to whip back a day or two and fill in the lottery (or lotteries).
"The bit I don't understand is why folks feel the Internet is any different from the 'real world'?"
EH? So fakebook profiles are accurate reflections of the 'real world' are they?
If you believe that you are easily fooled.
Cyber world and the real world are two very different places. Cyber world is just full of bullsh*te.
2 types of people inhabit cyber world. Those who take it seriously and really think twitter/fakebook posts are real, and those who use it for what it is, a tool for tools. It is full of total and utter lies and deception.
We should feel sorry for those in cyber world and try to educate them that we live in a real world, where friends are those you see face to face on a regular basis. Educate them so they know the differences and what those differences mean in the 'real world'.
I don't think Snowdon revealed NSA shenanigans to claim the lime light at all.
Do you really think he went to work thinking "I know, I'll blow the whistle on these highly illeagl/imoral actions being taken by the NSA to get my 15 mins of fame"?
Hmmmm, thats just plain wrong.
I'm scared for humanity when reading these 'honest real world' comments. Doh!
The bit I don't understand is why folks feel the Internet is any different from the 'real world'
That's probably because in the Internet you don't feel the surveillance, it happens in the ether and you have no way of even knowing you are being watched.
If the Internet was not there to allow them to do the job invisibly, there would have to be a Security Officer in every Post Office, reading your mail (in back rooms, or maybe not). Another one would be at every intersection recording all cars that went by (maybe stopping them to do so without missing any). You wouldn't place calls directly, you'd have to first call Homeland Security and ask them to connect you to someone (while they record the call).
In every shop you'd have to present your ID to an officer so he could record your purchases and cross-reference them to your name. Every place you could buy something you would give an officer your card so he could make the transaction for you in a Homeland Security-approved manner (with your ID tagged to the purchase).
Etc.
I think people would rather object to that, generally speaking. But since it is happening on the Internet and they don't see it happening, it sails through almost unhindered.
..That's probably because in the Internet you don't feel the surveillance, it happens in the ether and you have no way of even knowing you are being watched.
Like you (usually) have any chance of knowing that you're being watched in the 'real world'.
I've been under surveillance twice (to my knowledge).
First time, peripherally, as my father was being watched by the spooks during Cold War I (you had a better class of spook back in those days, they left not-so-subtle hints - like Cheltenham postmarks on redirected mail, coffee cup rings in the middle of publications from behind the Iron curtain, one of the secret squirrels informed my father to his face that the phone was tapped..). This crap went on for decades.
Second Time, I was caught up in an ongoing fraud investigation (technically collateral damage as I knew one of the prime targets of the investigation), and was followed on a regular basis for over a fortnight (quite pathetically, by one of the 'operatives'), I know that approx 15 years later there was still a flag up in some database somewhere about that one.
Oh, there was also the incident of the local CID asking my sister if I was 'still working with computers down in Camford', as they were having some issues with their systems....to this day, I've no idea what that one was about.
For the sheer hell of it as we've initiated Cold War II, I've just opened up an email account in Russia, so I'm expecting appropriate snoopiness to follow..
rather than laws. Human nature being what it is, nothing will escape control.
One may think of the internet as a community well where everyone thought themselves free to bring their own bucket to dip into its refreshing waters. But the internet attracted notice of those in power who, when they cannot control it, will poison it. Ergo, NSA, GCHQ, DHS, CIA, Five Eyes, etc., etc.
Ponder for a moment why all those tax dollars and resources were not used to safeguard the people's well from contamination. In whose interest would that have been?
Beware the water.
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