Snowden: US and Israel did create Stuxnet attack code NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has confirmed that the Stuxnet malware used to attack Iranian nuclear facilities was created as part of a joint operation between the Israelis and the NSA's Foreign Affairs Directorate (FAD). "The NSA and Israel cowrote it," he told Der Spiegel in an email interview conducted before he publicly …
I am generally sympathetic to Snowden's cause, but there is a possibility he is over egging the pudding.
For the most part he has a highly receptive audience, none of whom are playing Devil's Advocate. None of us really know if he has real knowledge on Stuxnet or whether he's embellishing.
Yeah, and that's when you should start doing a serious reality check.
By his own admission he was only at the NSA for 30 days. Do you seriously think anyone could get these kinds of details on such a wide variety of data in only 30 days?
Intelligence data is compartmentalized. My roomie has a clearance and works as a civilian for the military. Not the really secret black ops stuff, just the stuff you wouldn't want the enemy to know about how you make equipment. Pain points for him are bad enough. Very rarely he deals with highly classified systems. If you get high enough into them, you get a phone number you can call. If some one answers "Hello" and gives the correct countersign you ask your question. You don't ask who answered. You don't wait for a response to your question. You just ask. More likely you'll get a recording device and you leave a message. Maybe they'll get back to you before the deadline for whatever you are working on expires. Do you really think the hard core black ops stuff we expect the NSA to perform in defense of our country is LESS compartmentalized than the process for building armarments?
"Other European countries also work closely with the NSA, he said, describing the organization as "in bed together with the Germans." Other countries don't ask where the NSA's data comes from, and the US returns that favor, to give politicians plausible deniability in the event of source disclosure, he explained."
We knew this 25 years ago when it was revealed that the Canadians (under Echelon) spied on cabinet ministers who were thought to be disloyal to Margaret Thatcher. This avoided the potential legal issues of using British intelligence services to spy on members of their own government.
German cooperation with US spying is made fairly obvious by the numerous Echelon stations dotted around Germany.
Yeah I noticed that too. I'd like to think it's the sort of remark that would set off alarms in a normal Brit's thinking. But apparently most of them are too caught up in hating on the US at the moment to see the bright flashing lights or hear the blaring sirens warning them something isn't right.
If you want to catch a shark you need good bait........it looks like bait,it swims and smells like bait but in the end its just a lure to catch a big fish.
There are many men and women in many services who would give their life for their country maybe just maybe Snowden is one of them.
So, if it is all stuff that been running around in the conspiracy mill, how do you know what he's saying is real and not stuff he made up to garner attention?
I mean, do you REALLY think The Queen is sending "selfies" to the pool boy? I'm not questioning that we'd scoop them up in a New York second if she were, I'm asking if you really think she'd do that. She's not my queen and I don't think she would.
Trying to add some IT angle to this would be that whatever is possible will be used. So we have different governments feeling they are not as good as some other government at the "game" and they will have to win this game, of course, regardless of any rules or rights, or what ever, we think they should follow. All in the name of what ever. to day. As for Snowden, if he knocked on my door, I would let him in, offering him a shower and shelter. As for Stuxnet that was superb programming, I like that, but then again there are questions.
John Smith 19:
"9/11/01 was thirteen years ago."
12 years ago?
Steve Davies 3:
"Don't you mean 11th September 2001
Using the proper date format."
Interesting, I always though the attackers on that day chose the date "9/11" because it's the phone number Americans dial to get emergency services, 9-1-1, so that the date would be more memorable. So in this case the "correction" wouldn't be needed. Or I just missed the joke.
AFAICR it wasn't planned for that date but someone of the terros came in or messed up late so they had to postpone.
The coincidences of
0) This day being written 9-11
1) NORAD running an exercice about hijacked planes
2) Rummie hanging around at the Pentagon
3) Someone shorting United Airlines fiercly in the morning
all on the same day are bizarre. Look elsewhere effect. Probably.
Did I mention that the building insure came through just a few days earlier?
And he'd know?
Snowden is a fool who has given up a decent life and for what?
To tell us that plain text data and unencrypted data sent over public media has been scanned by governments? This is supposed to be an amazing revelation? Anyone with network access to the dozens of servers between our client and a destination server could do the same.
Meanwhile, as we read the articles about Snowden on The Register and every other outraged media site our actions are scanned by Google or one of its ad subsidiaries with the full and complete knowledge of the outraged journalists and bloggers.
If you use a public thoroughfare, don't be surprised if you're caught on camera.
Just a tech note: it wasn't the Iranian centrifuge motors that were damaged, it was the centrifuge rotors. By varying the motor speed ridiculously you can cause vibrations that destroy the tubes. This will cause various automatic shutdowns and reduce the cascade's ability to separate.
America and Israel write virus to take out arch enemy's nuclear programme.
That's a real shock. I was thinking it was Pakistan that was behind it, what with all their positive artistic, and scientific, and humanstic, and medical and technological advances they've contributed to the world.
Those who say Snowden is a "traitor" or "hurting the USA," I ask this question: can you name *one* piece of information that Snowden has released that US citizens should not know about.
Not what he might know, or what he could know. I'm talking about what he has released. What information should we, as US citizens not know about. Name it. One thing that makes him a traitor instead of a patriot. I'm waiting.
I'm not American but if I was I would class him as a patriot. (I'm British I don't use such terminology)
However telling the Chinese that America is monitoring their citizens could be construed by some simple minded folk as traitorous. If you were to ask why then look no further than the perpetual state of fear of "the enemy" whoever that might be at the time.
Though I am getting a bit annoyed at "the snowden show", which begs the question why focus on the person and not the reason, I do get the feeling that the mainstream press do this all the time.
"Why in the WORLD would Snowden not release everything at once?"
Because he's an attention seeker who believes he'll stay in the public eye for longer. And he may well be right given the gullibility and general ignorance on technical matters of the media.
I wonder if he's realised by now what a monumental idiot he has been. Famous for a few weeks followed by the rest of his life imprisoned in a jail of either his own making (if he's lucky) or one in the USA. And for what? To give a few US politicians a minor diplomatic headache for a month or two and a few more a reason to bash the US.
Bloody sad and bloody pointless. Whoever printed this stuff first should have told him to go home and keep his mouth shut rather than screw up his life.
Why in the WORLD would Snowden not release everything at once?
Maybe he was just disgusted that the US was breaking it's own laws by routine monitoring. Something that the administration explicitly said it didn't do. Maybe he never wanted to release everything he knew into the public domain. However when he first opened his mouth the US authorities fired off a shitstorm that made it impossible for him to do anything else but trade other secrets for safe haven.
Modern governments use many weapons but they are often most proficient with the good old footgun.
Completely agree. It's the same with WikiLeaks. If they were just concerned with freedom of information etc, they would just release everything at once, but instead they release small bits of into at a time, because they enjoy the drama of the whole thing and the attention more than they care about FOI!
You are assuming that he didn't...
Remember Wikileaks and it's media partners/backers are involved. As we have seen from previous high profile leaks/disclosures, these parties have trickled information out even though they have been sitting on it for a few weeks or months - whilst they sift through and verify it and then build stories around the nuggets uncovered.
The only real fly in the ointment is that if this was the case, Snowden would of probably distanced himself from the data so that he could take up Putin's offer and do some escorted (?!) sight seeing.
Going off on a tangent, Hollywood has probably got someone in with Snowden researching material for "The Terminal 2".
...dont be so naive as to take the type of job where youre probably going to encounter them.
Ive got absolutely no sympathy for these people - they are not whistleblowers - they are risking national security and delicate international relationships by divulging this sort of info. It is treason - pure and simple.
The unfortunate reality is that all major nations do this sort of thing and the best sort of defence is attack as far as this stuff goes...
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