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Schneier: China and Russia Almost Definitely Have the Snowden Docs
cold fjord writes: Writing at Wired, Bruce Schneier states that he believes that China and Russia actually do have the Snowden documents, but that the path by which they got them may be different than what has been reported: "... The vulnerability is not Snowden; it's everyone who has access to the files. I've handled some of the Snowden documents myself, and even though I'm a paranoid cryptographer, I know how difficult it is to maintain perfect security. It's been open season on the computers of the journalists Snowden shared documents with since this story broke in July 2013. And while they have been taking extraordinary pains to secure those computers, it's almost certainly not enough to keep out the world's intelligence services. .... Which brings me to the second potential source of these documents to foreign intelligence agencies: the US and UK governments themselves. I believe that both China and Russia had access to all the files that Snowden took well before Snowden took them because they've penetrated the NSA networks where those files reside."
I believe that both China and Russia had access to all the files that Snowden took well before Snowden took them because they've penetrated the NSA networks where those files reside.I believe that both China and Russia had access to all the files that Snowden took well before Snowden took them because they've penetrated the NSA networks where those files reside.
Uh, yeah. This was obvious from the beginning. If it was that easy for Snowden to grab all of those files without anyone noticing anything until it was too late, how many other bazillions of employees, contractors, sysadmins, etc etc etc etc also had similar access.
The Chinese & Russians (and others--Brits, Israelis, what have you) are actively trying to subvert all these thousands of folks.
It's really not rocket science, or even computer science. More, do you have the right contact. With so many potential contacts it becomes almost inevitable.
And that's without even getting into technical break-ins--which also seem very, very possible given the lax security that the Snowden affair demonstrates. If Snowden can get unauthorized access to all those files, then it's possible for others to do so as well.
Give up on the conspiracy bullshit. He is just trying to excuse what Snowden did. Snowden had physical access to the network and still had to social engineer passwords.
It's a bit naive to think that professional foreign intelligence spies don't have the same access a low level NSA contractor does. There are clearly no safeguards against copying anything you want and walking away with it. That's not conjecture; we have direct evidence how easy it is. The only difference is actual spies know enough to keep their mouths shut about how ineffectual and incompetent US security is.
I believe that both China and Russia had access to all the files that Snowden took well before Snowden took them because they’ve penetrated the NSA networks where those files reside. After all, the NSA has been a prime target for decades.
This is why I find allegations that Snowden was working for the Russians or the Chinese simply laughable. What makes you think those countries waited for Snowden? And why do you think someone working for the Russians or the Chinese would go public with their haul?
Like, which Snowden and journalists working with him, said trillion times, he kept nothing, everything were handled to journalists, before he went to Russia, but the MSM "accidentally" forget this.
Every time, when something from his documents is debunked, exposed by *journalists*, each time, I see the "innocent" title like "Snowden releases X", "Snowden claims Y", etc...
And, each time, comments like "when Putin get all infos from this traitor, he is doom" get soil to grow!
Here is the key point Schneier's post makes:
To headline this story without including some reference to China and Russia having penetrated NSA networks is to imply Schneier is saying Snowden provided China and Russia with information they did not have already. It is either sloppy or intentionally misleading. The headline could have been "Schneier: Chinese and Russian Spies Probably Had Snowden Docs Before Snowden."
Snowden had physical access to the network and still had to social engineer passwords.
Anyone who thinks Snowden is the first and only person who had the access, ability, and inclination to take the data he took is as high as a fucking kite.
Or just stupid.
Snowden is just the only one who went public.
If you had been reading Bruce's posts over the last few months you'd know that there is definitely at least one other NSA leaker. As to other leakage (other than to the media) - that is the main thing that the NSA is scrambling to divert everyone's attention from. The fact that so many companies have been tasked with gathering and processing the material (not just meta-data) that FiveEyes gather - given that it's impossible to stop them using that information to advance their own corporate interests. That and the fact that a NSA core mission is to protect the economic dominance of the USA - not just "from terrorism".
From a security point of view, from the moment that Edward Snowden went public you have to operate under the premise that those leaks have happened before, and that other interested parties had and still have unencrypted access to all the documents Edward Snowden took, and to other documents Edward Snowden didn't took because he either didn't knew about them or hadn't had access to them.