Slashdot Mirror
The NSA Uses the Same Chat Protocol As Hackers
rossgneumann writes NSA documents obtained by Edward Snowden and reported on by Der Spiegel on Sunday reveal that the agency communicates internally with Jabber, an open source messaging service used by hackers and activists trying to skirt the NSA's internet surveillance dragnet. A document outlining the NSA's Scarletfever program—a "message driven cryptologic exploitation service" designed as part of the larger Longhaul initiative, a program that collects data and finds ways to break its encryption—contains a curious point buried near the end: "Jabber Chat Room: TBD."
i bet those sons of bitches are using imap and ethernet too! just like hackers!
Wow, that article said absolutely nothing interesting.
The gist: jabber is a widely used protocol, there is a widely used way to encrypt it,and the NSA has played around with it.
Also what is the deal with every website now using this weird scrolling hackery. I find it very unpleasant.
Is this like nerd, where everyone is calling themselves that?
Because XMPP (Jabber prior to it's adoption as a standard) is/has been used by google, plus about a hundred other chat services, including Kik (albeit a proprietary derivative, seems to be what all the kids are using nowadays).
So really it's less a story of NSA using the same service as hackers and more 'Whoa! NSA uses the same chat protocols as *EVERYONE ELSE DOES*"
What a non-story.
It will be as successful as the "legalize marijuana" petition.
Is that really the example you want to use? Is the answer, "fairly successful"?
23 states and District of Columbia currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form.
4 states have legalized it for recreational use (6 in 2015).
Many states have eliminated or greatly reduced penalties for small amounts of it.
Population-wise, and electoral-college-wise, I believe we are well past 50%.