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Edward Snowden Is Not Alone: US Gov't Seeks Another Leaker
bobbied (2522392) writes Apparently Edward Snowden is not alone. CNN is reporting that recent leaked documents published by The Intercept (a website that has been publishing Snowden's leaked documents) could not have been leaked by Snowden because they didn't exist prior to his fleeing the USA and he couldn't possibly have accessed them. Authorities are said to be looking for a new leaker.
They just need an Operation Showerhead.
...they are the FACES we know.
Those you and I never see - are MANY more, I'm guessing thousands. It's a cat and mouse game, spy vs spy. Someone somewhere leaks something, and someone else gets assigned to find out what leaked, who leaked it and how do we close the leak and clean up after it.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Guys, it was me. I'm sorry, but I just can't keep a secret, which is why I revealed it, and why I had to tell you that Mrs. Jenkins across the street? The UPS man was parked there 45 minutes this morning, and he smiled coming out.
maybe, just maybe, Snowden is the FACE of the leaks.
They will call the whistle blowers "TRAITORS" and they will come up with all the usual justifications - that they need to fight "terrorism", or whatever it is ...
America is turning into an extra-large-size concentration camp and still there are people wanting it to happen !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
and the lack of meaningful change from the initial outrage,
Maybe, just fucking Maybe, Snowden's legacy will be his inspiration to leagues of others who are driven to reveal outrages instead of ignoring them like good little soldiers.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The NSA is a very big operation, with lots of subcontractors. Not all of them are idiots/cowards/sociopaths.
One is believable. Lots would be believable. Two, and only two, not so much.
Meanwhile important stories NOT appearing on Slashdot...
Cash, Weapons and Surveillance: the U.S. is a Key Party to Every Israeli Attack
The U.S. government has long lavished overwhelming aid on Israel, providing cash, weapons and surveillance technology that play a crucial role in Israel’s attacks on its neighbors. But top secret documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden shed substantial new light on how the U.S. and its partners directly enable Israel’s military assaults – such as the one on Gaza.
Over the last decade, the NSA has significantly increased the surveillance assistance it provides to its Israeli counterpart, the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU; also known as Unit 8200), including data used to monitor and target Palestinians. In many cases, the NSA and ISNU work cooperatively with the British and Canadian spy agencies, the GCHQ and CSEC.
and
Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers
Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.
Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.
As recently as May, shortly after he retired as NSA director, Gen. Keith Alexander denied that Snowden could have passed FISA content to journalists.
"He didn't get this data," Alexander told a New Yorker reporter. "They didn't touch --"
"The operational data?" the reporter asked.
"They didn't touch the FISA data," Alexander replied. He added, "That database, he didn't have access to."
HAHAHA hahhahahaahah hahhaahahhah ahaahahhaha haha hahha hahaahah hahah haha haaaaaaaaaaaahhh hahahaah hahaa hahhahahaaaa hahhhahaahah hahaahah hahaahah hahahaaaah HAHAH HAAAAh haaa hahahaahahhahaha hahahaa HHAAAAAAAaaaaaaaah hahahaa hah haha haaaaahahahaha hahaha hahhaha haahahhaha hahaha hhahahhaaaahahahhahahahaaaaaaaa!
(yes, I logged in specifically to post that!) (edited because the filter would not allow the full glory of the transcript of my laughter...)
Well, you didn't think the FSB would suddenly close up shop, didn't you?
There is another leaker, except if they failed to revoke all Snowden's accesses.
But I could not seriously imagine such ridiculous outcome.
...the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki...
Believable, but considering that the CIA said that nobody had access to the senate's subnet, and then it turned out that common IT workers had access AND USED IT -- and Snowden was in a similar position -- and I'd take anything said by NSA leadership with a grain of salt. Often at that level, "he didn't have access to" really means "the policies stated he shouldn't access that." It doesn't mean that it wasn't possible, just that it was outside accepted policies and procedures, and that at some point, someone SHOULD have airgapped it and added in the appropriate ACLs such that it wouldn't be possible.
But I'd believe more that Snowden was the one who escaped with the data, but there are actually a number of people who were involved in obtaining it in the first place. And now that Snowden has opened things up but prevented himself from providing other leaks, the rest have found an alternate route that didn't involve a courier in the same manner.
The thing is, if they can leak like this, that means it's just as easy for other actors to be leaking to people who might want the information but who won't tell about it. This shows that access control at the NSA is still thoroughly broken, no matter who the leak was.
CNN seems to be very confused; in what way is this additional whistleblower a "mole"?
Alice: "And what do you do for a living?"
Bob: "Why, I'm a Leaker Seeker!"
because they didn't exist prior to his fleeing the USA and he couldn't possibly have accessed them.
That's what someone thins....
You think the NSA would know a few things about security.
Rule 1. Change all passwords when a privileged user leaves the organization, especially to accounts with access to confidential files.
Rule 2. Close all the covert backdoors they opened up before leaving.
Hey, we told the IT guy to change the permissions on that folder to keep himself out. He must have been some kind of super-hacker to get past us...
If the citizenry continues to allow the government to punish the leakers, and further to completely get away with doing everything that was leaked, we can expect this trend to be short.
We, by which I mean you, need to get up and publicly protest and push charges against the government officials who betrayed us.
Justice will not happen by itself.
So at least two people then that for idealistic reasons or so leak documents to the public.
Then begs the question how many actual moles from foreign intelligence there are.
Let the witch hunts begin!
All of these agencies are shown to be violating the law, lying to us (and Congress) about it, and generally ignoring basic rule of law.
So, either you have to conclude that everybody who works for these agencies has bought into the Kool-Aid of fascism ... of some of them are going to realize that the surveillance state has gone way beyond what it should and is undermining everything.
This level government secrecy and abuse is a cancer, and it needs to be removed.
Quite frankly, leaking is pretty much moral obligation of anybody who has realized the extent to which these agencies have become toxic.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Not to mention the attacks of conscious forced upon many of them when their (potentially now former) friends, and neighbors start calling them out for spying.
Is it possible that Snowden still knows a way to get into the machines he used to manage?
A long time ago, I left a company where I had been the sole admin for several years. I had been training up a PFY who eventually replaced me. His last assignment was to find my back door and close it. From my new job, I'd occasionally log into my old machines, have a look around, and send him an email to watch for this thing or fix that thing. He eventually figured out that the usenet news service account had a password.
I know I know, but it was a different time.
Point is, maybe there's new leaks because Snowden still has a back door into his old machines?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
> they didn't exist prior to his fleeing the USA and he couldn't possibly have accessed them.
Why couldn't of he of created a back door to later access the system?
What a bunch of dull thinkers, f them all, lowest bidder and this is what you get.
Some where I remember a saying, "The harder you grip your hand, the faster the sand runs out."
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
Often at that level, "he didn't have access to" really means "the policies stated he shouldn't access that." It doesn't mean that it wasn't possible, just that it was outside accepted policies and procedures
Or I guess it could also mean "the guy who made the comments was never permitted to know the details of how much access he had".
Now that you have shared, well, now you will ... RIP
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Have gnu, will travel.
There isn't a need to be a martyr and out yourself like Snowden did. That was likely Snowden's dumbest move.
You mean to say, you hired dedicated patriots, with a fundamental desire to server the public, put them through intensive training, made them take a solemn oath to uphold the constitution, then employed them and asked them to violate those very principles, and that oath... and you mean to tell me a few of them may have turned against you?
The lunacy of our federal government never ceases to astound me.
Glad to see some more people grow a pair
The CNN talking-head calls the leaker a "mole." WRONG.
A Federal Whistle-blower is not a "mole," but simply a whistle-blower.
This is similar to the concept of "jury nullification," whereby a jury can find an accused guilty of breaking a law, but can also recommend ZERO punishment, as jury nullification is a mechanism for citizens to nullify unjust laws.
It was used a lot in the civil-rights era, but has been buried by Attys. and judges alike, leading to a lack of awareness by potential jurors.
PS – Want to get out of jury duty? Get informed, and assert your faith in Jury Nullification in open court during voire dire.
They hate being held to account, and prefer an ignorant "jury of peers."
But, I don't want to be servered.
Thanks to budget cuts NAS and CLOUD storage is on the rise. The weakest link is cheap commodity gunk.
No matter what piddly operating system is used, these devices are wide open if you are smart enough.
If they have backups, then again risk multiplied.
Of course it could be well paid 'advisors' and 'consultants' hoping to get a follow up contract.
... That I have but one life to give for my country.
As for me, Edward Snowden is a man cut from the same cloth as Nathan Hale
There's two issues here;
1: Various US government departments may be doing something dodgy
2: Someone is leaking classified data to the wider population
Now, I've no opinion on the first one - I'm not a US citizen (though I class myself as a US sympathizer). If true, it's a thing for the citizens and the justice department. I hope the issue gets resolved, right prevails etc
But the second one is a security breach: the guy (whatever his intentions) has broken his contract with the company, and also the law. What documents get released to the wider public is not a matter for the individual - it's a matter for the owners of the data, according to the law.
And as someone who's hired staff in the past, I'd be less than impressed if someone admitted that he'd leaked data to the public because he thought it was the right thing to do. That's my call, not his. Or more likely my boss's. Or his boss's.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
The good news is that the NSA is apparently too inept to even watch their own employees.
Maybe this one will stay anonymous so it will actually be about the information leaked, instead of using the leaks as a greedy attempt to propel himself to fame.
Since the US media has become useless in terms of actual journalism, I don't think they care. TV based media simply ignores leaks, so the population that relies on TV media for news is just as clueless as if the leak never happened. Not a new tactic mind you, just lots easier with TV Propaganda^wNews today. They are probably betting that people will just forget. Happens all the time with Government and has for decades.
There are a few good radio stations that will talk about these issues, but none are nationally syndicated. Anything that receives lots of airtime gets bought out by Fox^wClearchannel and changed to a "Sports" station. Before you say it, Alex Jones sold out long ago and is now just a more extreme version of Rush Limbaugh (sometimes okay for scaring people awake to problems, but not often).
Newspapers? WTF is a Newspaper? Well, more seriously the few that are left are all controlled like Radio and TV.
I would be willing to bet that there are more leakers than just Snowden. If I was going to leak I may blame him since that might save me from a likely life term in "pound me up the ass prison". As long as Snowden is in Moscow he probably does not mind, it keeps him popular and relevant which I'm sure leads to a bit of income.
Having spent 10 years in the DOD I can tell you that security is possible (Not to brag, well maybe a little bit, I built the first NISPOM compliant secure networks off of a military installation). At at the time I left (8 years ago) they were trying to skimp and even offshore work. One of many reasons for me leaving mind you. Systems can be secured and audited, but it's expensive and everyone in the management and executive chain wants bigger bonus checks. Politicians want bigger kick backs, so the money train works against security as often as possible.
This shows that access control at the NSA is still thoroughly broken, no matter who the leak was.
I would have to agree, because you don't change a decade of shit security in a year. You would need to re-architect a decade worth of systems, and I'd bet a box of donuts that they just tried slapping bandaids on things.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Hey, we told the IT guy to change the permissions on that folder to keep himself out. He must have been some kind of super-hacker to get past us...
He wrote the bloody backup system...
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
"Mister President, I don't want to judge the matter before all the facts are in, but it's beginning to look like General Ripper exceeded his authority."
They are NOT whistleblowers or moles... they are our nations TRUEST, in every sense of the word, Freedom Fighters.
Lets repeat that again, Freedom Fighters.
I'm not a religious man, but I'll bloody well say this. God bless you, for you are the few protecting us from the tyrants within.
Wack a mole is a tough game to play. Its why TOR is being modified so that there are millions more entry points, and millions more exit points, and certainly (apparently) Snowden isn't the only mole that is doing all the leaking. I don't think there are traitors here, I don't think they are trying to bring down the United States. I think they believe (honestly) that there has been a significant and persistent overreach of the Federal 3-letter agencies (NSA, CIA, FBI, DHS, ICE, DEA, ATF, DIA, DOD, ISR, NRO, NGA, ONI, TFI, etc,). These agencies have also shown that they are not truthful to government oversight (intentionally lying to Congress under oath). Further, working 'from within' is not just bad for one's career, but bad for one's freedom. Look at the case of Thomas Drake (creator of Thin-Thread: an NSA application that would sift through mountains of data (mountainous haystacks) to find any needle you want in log(log(n) time. He built it with Constitutional safeguards. They went with another application (Trailblazer) which was found to be ineffective. They then went with Thin-Thread, but removed the safeguards. He tried to get them to remain constitutional, they told him to mind his other business. He went to a director, and was suspended and threatened. He went to a congressman, and suddenly a District Attorney was threatening him with 30 years in jail, and restricting the movements of his family members while seizing all of his assets (house, car, bank accounts, etc.). Is it any wonder that there is more than one mole to whack? Oh, and the NSA won't find them either.
This is why one doesn't waste intelligence resources to tap the private phones of political allies. Yeah, TFS was about leaking information not proper SigInt, but when the spying is discovered, the result will be the same.
Maybe, just fucking Maybe, Snowden's legacy will be his inspiration to leagues of others who ..
Slashdot needs an animated talking head capable of reacting to the emphasis and changes of tone of the posts with emphatic and surprising reactions.
The CNN talking-head calls the leaker a "mole".
CORRECT. The whistle-blower gave secret files to the enemies of the US government; namely the citizens of the USA.
I saw things at my workplace that endangered the public's health and could have harmed employees but I couldn't speak out because I would be the one to be fired. A drinking water plant with twenty tons of liquid chlorine on-site, three to five thousand gallon tanks of ammonia and ferric chloride and a mtnce staff that kind of sat around until something broke. Any problems were kept secret, rarely reported to the State. I was exposed to chlorine gas and ran to the locker room and took a shower. Nothing said or done.
Max Headslash?
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
And the turds in charge dont like having their collusive stupidity exposed. Oh the humanity.
Slashdot Gamma?
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
I work for minimum wage and I have 5 children.
Have gnu, will travel.
Huh, Troll'n I see there A/C... Pretty lame attempt so I'll give you 2/10 for that.
I truly *feel* they do go in w/ the RIGHT motives, only to start adopting a "fight fire w/ fire" method, finding in the end (& the evidences of misusing their surveilling powers to, e.g. spy on ex-girlfriends illegally as those in law enforcement with such powers WERE CAUGHT DOING) that power & method, intoxicates & overwhelms, sure as drug addiction like heroin (an "easy fix" that ends you in the end), & they BECOME their worst enemies using the same means/methods/modus operandi, & they too end up corrupted by such "easy power" which is ALL-POWERFUL, since information truly IS, power (the most powerful kind that empowers you), misusing it, becoming in fact, WORSE than their enemies, in having lowered themselves to THE ENEMY'S LOW GROUND, means, & methods.
So, per my subject-line above - I do really feel that way. I mean, look @ nerdy ole' Walt: He was out to do the RIGHT THING, he really was (albeit via BAD METHODS with the worst kinds of people), for his newborn ONLY kid & wife he loved... what did he turn into though?
"I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS..."
(That's who, for those of you familiar with the series...)
APK
P.S.=> I hope you all see my point here, should anybody read it... the point is, truly, that "absolute power, corrupts absolutely", & that IS that (the results show it, everytime)... apk
There is no way, NSA would tell anybody, and no way CNN would tell the story unless it benefitted Obama.
This is another fals flag if you ask me.
If we were able to make documents impossible for someone outside to access then we would never have any leaks
As we learn more about what our Government is doing in secret, we can be more sure that: They Lie!!
if Snowden actually was the leaker, and had managed remote access to supposedly secure databases and facilities.
I also wonder if this entire thing is a contrivance to distract people from the fact that the government is who is doing the significant illegal activities.