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NSA Prepares For Future Techno-Battles By Plotting Network Takedowns
Advocatus Diaboli (1627651) writes According to top secret documents from the archive of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden seen exclusively by SPIEGEL, they are planning for wars of the future in which the Internet will play a critical role, with the aim of being able to use the net to paralyze computer networks and, by doing so, potentially all the infrastructure they control, including power and water supplies, factories, airports or the flow of money. Also check out — New Snowden documents show that the NSA and its allies are laughing at the rest of the world.
I hoped this privacy-invading mass surveillance shit would stop instead it is escalating in a new arms race.
"NSA .. are planning .. to paralyze computer networks and, by doing so, potentially all the infrastructure they control, including power and water supplies, factories, airports or the flow of money."
Did I just slip through a crack in the universe, to a place where the past decades of computer intrusions didn't take place. If so, then that would explain why people are still connecting their critical infrastructure directly to the Internet.
I cannot possibly see any kind of justification for 'public right to know' or 'public interest' here.
Here, it's just a bunch of idiots who hate the West in general (and the United States in particular), trying to give the Western security apparatus a black eye. I fail to see how leaking our game plans to enemies and competitors is going to make us any safer.
Like it or not, the West is the light on the hill for the whole world. People who believe otherwise should imagine the whole world being run along Chinese, Russian or Islamist lines... The West does a lot of bad shit, but we are choir boys, compared to the rest of the world.
Dear leaker community: please stop shitting in your own nest. You have no idea what you're doing, or what kind of world you're trying to create.
More simply explained. People's bosses aren't willing to pay for properly isolating their infrastructure because
a) they don't understand
b) they don't care
and c) they want direct access to their stuff from wherever they are, just like the vendor promised.
Did I just slip through a crack in the universe, to a place where the past decades of computer intrusions didn't take place.
In every past intrusion, the intruders were always held to be 100% to blame.
No manager ever went to jail for gross negligence after a million credit card numbers were stolen, or a control system was attacked.
No major company that was breached ever got sued for all they have by customers whose personal information and privacy were compromised due to the company's gross negligence --- again the intruders were held to have all the blame.
The most serious breaches happen every day by most every business large and small.... you can bet your bottom dollar, that the vast majority of breaches are swept under the rug, and we never learn about them. Unless the breach becomes severe enough or something happens where the company can no longer hide it.... I suspect 90% of small and medium businesses are not disclosing this kind of stuff properly, not even if customers are at risk
When was the last time you got a letter from your grocery store?
Businesses are having workstations on their LAN infected with random malware all the time.
Just about any service provider you do business with has your information and has Windows workstations, and that should make the public scared as hell
But by and large, the public is unaware, even "security experts" are unaware.
Don't want your infrastructure paralyzed? Don't connect it to a global public network.
Afraid the NSA has compromised the infrastructure of your nation? Pull the plug to the rest of the world, isolate your network, reload everything including firmware and have that firmware analyzed byte by byte for potential vulnerabilities. Or buy silent typewriters and use them in soundproof roofs that have been swept for bugs.
These guys have compromised the planet all the way down to the equipment manufacturers. They have themselves endangered national security by injecting such vulnerabilities for the black hat community to discover and enjoy. This has become less about national security and more about manipulation/control of the populace/world. They have overstepped their bounds greatly to the point of being dangerous to the liberty of every man, woman and child on the face of this Earth potentially and very little is being done to put a leash on them.
Seriously, what hasn't the NSA illegally pwned yet? They are conducting organized crime basically and our government has told us to shove it. I'd laugh too. Hell, I might even die laughing. I don't think I'd be able to stop.
Or they have a felony conviction for pot on their record and every job application asks if they have ever been convicted of a felony. The background check companies are allowed to do will reveal those that lied.
Let's face it, the system of denial because of legal issues is huge in the US which also happens to have the largest prison population in the world. Convicted felons, whether they served their time honorably or not, are denied a job, a home, the right to participate in our political system and in general to be considered "rehabilitated". In short, they are stigmatized from the first arrest for the rest of their lives.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
The intruders are 100% to blame.
False dichotomy, moron. There can be multiple people at fault for different things. The intruders for an obvious reason, and the company for not using reasonable levels of security.
If someone smashes a window and burglarizes your home is it your fault because you didn't put bars over your windows?
There is such a thing as negligence, and in this context, it occurs when even multi-million (or billion!) dollar companies fail to use even a minimal level of security. You seriously can't tell the difference between a reasonable level of security and absolutely perfect security? Yes, I'm going to put forth the *outrageous* idea that companies should protect data with a reasonable level of security, and that they shouldn't ignore reality and put everyone's data at risk with absolutely laughable security practices. Wow, the poor babies!
And Snowden must enjoy living in Russia because he is digging his own hole everytime he release information on the US counter intelligence services that have nothing to do with the average US citizen.
As a US citizen, I care very much about things like ethics and justice; those are things which the US is supposed to aspire to, but doesn't, and no thanks to ignorant fools like yourself. Someone isn't subhuman just because they're born outside the US, and they deserve protections from indiscriminate surveillance as well. An organization like the NSA which has committed so many wrongs does not deserve any sympathy from anyone.
and obscuring the fact that the US is by no means the only country on the planet with espionage and counterintelligence operations across the globe.
"Everybody else is doing it, so it must be okay!" If we're such an excellent country, then maybe we should set an example for other countries by not doing evil things. Seriously, you people spew forth this nonsensical justification almost every time it comes out, and it gets tiring pointing out the fallacy.