World domination
I used to plan my world domination in the online game Global Therno Nuclear War, but later learnt via Tic-Tac-Toe that my intended rusults were unobtainable.
Italian counter-terror agents are to monitor Sony's PlayStation Network for jihadi chatter, according to the nation's justice minister, following alarmingly silly reports that a PS4 was used to coordinate the terrorist attacks in Paris. Andrea Orlando told Italian broadsheet Il Messaggero that the government would be investing …
now, of course, everyone's going to change their COD name to jihadi_jim or xxAlouitiousAkhbarxx and start spaffing mockwah speech (if cockney can have mockney, fatwah can have mockwah?) - the sheer quantity of noise as it stands about blowing shit up on a gaming network makes the idea risible, never mind people KNOWING you're looking for it.
Devil's Advocate May Cry anyone ?
This is Italy so it's probably a fat kickback for a preferred pork program (PPP), nothing to do with reality.
The Independent seems to take this at face value ... but then again the WaPo today thinks that Europe has a particular terrorist problem because there is no pervasive surveillance, integrated data exchange and not enough cops. Seems more like because Europe is near to american battlefields and likes to involve itself in the same for unclear reasons.
It must be a good job creation program, how many screens of other people playing CoD do you think you could watch at the same time, and still notice when someone was writing messages with bullets? Say it's about eight, that way you'll only(!) need one watcher per eight gamers, and then there's just the small matter of all the equipment etc you'll need to monitor all games, all the time.
Well at least there's no chance whatsoever that potential terrorists could just have a chat face to face, because that would render this whole boondoggle a waste of time.
>"An ISIS agent could spell out an attack plan in Super Mario Maker’s coins and share it privately with a friend, or two Call of Duty players could write messages to each other on a wall in a disappearing spray of bullets."
I'm surprised nobody's churned out a "BAN VIDEO GAMES!" mantra again yet.
We need a high-profile absolutely* spy-proof communication system: strong encryption and no** usable metadata. We know there are such things, but they don't have enough public exposure for the majority people to realize "Well, terrorists could always use System X" so what's the point of allowing governments to spy on everybody all the time?"
* for highish values of absolutely
** for smallish values of no
There is most certainly a high-profile absolutely* spy-proof communication system,
the spies themselves use it! - we couldn't have spies spying on spies now, that would be a loss of privacy, and compromise compartmentalised security or summat
* SAIC netEraser seems to be the highest profile spy-proof spy-comms program.
there were many court-cases over 'gabriel technologies' where big players tried to use patented spook communications technology.
just imagine if the jihadis got a hold of that type of sh*t
netEraser - CIA from the millennium - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/2000-02/16/030r-021600-idx.html
If people with something to hide believe a channel is being watched, they're likely to avoid it. Even blacklist it, so dumber members don't stumble in.
So feed information that $channel is being monitored by $spook (of whatever country in the alliance), and that's one fewer place they're likely to use.
So, make announcements like this, and delegate someone to sample the channel in question a couple of times a year (and a dumb bot to run full-time). Repeat as necessary until they're channeled into somewhere you really do watch. Gotcha, for relatively little actual expenditure of effort.
No of course I don't know it's any such thing. But who's to say it's not?
It would sure explain some of the posts. On the other hand, since EADON's "retirement" there has been a steep decline in rabid comments.
Oh, and it would be really nice if the spooks would read the comment section of El Reg. Perhaps it might spark some common sense. But I'm not holding my breath.