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This raises an interesting question: how did Snowden get the documents out of the NSA? I don't recall reading much about how this was accomplished. Has that bee

This raises an interesting question: how did Snowden get the documents out of the NSA? I don't recall reading much about how this was accomplished. Has that been discussed/reported anywhere?

avar 11y ago
Wasn't he working from home from Hawaii as a contractor with a remote login and could easily transfer data from NSA systems at his leisure? Isn't this whole framing of a Jason Bourne-esque exfiltration of the data just a myth? Aside from Snowden you don't have to elaborately hide an SD card in a Rubik's cube. Just strick it in a condom and shove it. From what I've read security against this sort of exfiltration is focused on disabling USB ports and the like. Not trying to detect something the size of an SD card leaving the building. They're not doing a full cavity search or giving you an MRI each time you enter/exit.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- DanBC 11y ago
  > Aside from Snowden you don't have to elaborately hide an SD card in a Rubik's cube. Just strick it in a condom and shove it. Or just use a spy coin. The UK pound coin version is pretty good, but will stop working when we change our coins. Coins are handy because you carry them in your pockets, so they avoid xray checks at airports.
deepnet 11y ago
Snowden wasn't 'on-site', AFAIK he had remote access as a private contractor. One of Snowden's main revelations was how little oversight there was. He was motivated to come forward by the abuses he saw the NSA database put to, rather than its mere existence. Snowden has reported his colleagues reguarly exfiltrated 'dirty pictures' from the NSA database. Snowden says 'nudies' were a 'commodity' traded around his colleagues. If one can trivially sneak out dirty pics without oversight then... Of course if Snowden could do it for the best of reasons, it is hard to believe moles and foriegn agents don't have similar access.
- EthanHeilman 11y ago
  Years before Snowden it was revealed that recorded sex was traded around the NSA. In 2008 it was revealed that NSA employees made mix tapes of phone sex they recorded: >Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator’s computer. "Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there’s good phone sex or there’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, ‘Wow, this was crazy’," Faulk told ABC News. - Wired: NSA Snooped on Innocent Americans’ Private Calls from Iraq, Former Operators Charge https://www.wired.com/2008/10/we-snooped-on-i/ https://www.wired.com/2008/10/we-snooped-on-i/
- cookiecaper 11y ago
  Do the people with that kind of access simply not understand the power they have? If Snowden had access, surely there are at least dozens of other 20-somethings running around able to read the correspondence of almost anyone in the country. Are we to believe that they really are so self-disciplined the only thing they'll look at are nude photos? Why haven't we seen industrial and political fallout from these guys?
  - jellicle 11y ago
    Probably because they don't feel like spending the rest of their lives in permanent solitary confinement in ADX Florence.
    - cookiecaper 11y ago
      Yeah, but surely there would be a way to get the ball rolling without outing yourself. NSA analysts are going to be acquainted with at least the basic ways to stay anonymous online. If they found something interesting in the correspondence destined for a prominent politician or corporate officer, they could get the rumor mill started, or even make strategic leaks. Perhaps they already are doing it and we just aren't aware because they're covering their tracks well, but it seems like we'd see more aggressive targeting of interests that offend the likely demographic of NSA analysts, which to my knowledge hasn't happened. However many people have access to this, I don't know if it's dozens, hundreds, or thousands, have a frightening amount of power. They have to realize it. I guess they probably can't just type in "My Least Favorite Politician's Emails" into NSA internal search. Maybe this is the practical limitation that provides some nominal check on the power of these people?

This raises an interesting question: how did Snowden get the documents out of the NSA? I don't recall reading much about how this was accomplished. Has that been discussed/reported anywhere?

avar 11y ago

Wasn't he working from home from Hawaii as a contractor with a remote login and could easily transfer data from NSA systems at his leisure? Isn't this whole framing of a Jason Bourne-esque exfiltration of the data just a myth? Aside from Snowden you don't have to elaborately hide an SD card in a Rubik's cube. Just strick it in a condom and shove it. From what I've read security against this sort of exfiltration is focused on disabling USB ports and the like. Not trying to detect something the size of an SD card leaving the building. They're not doing a full cavity search or giving you an MRI each time you enter/exit.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
DanBC 11y ago
> Aside from Snowden you don't have to elaborately hide an SD card in a Rubik's cube. Just strick it in a condom and shove it. Or just use a spy coin. The UK pound coin version is pretty good, but will stop working when we change our coins. Coins are handy because you carry them in your pockets, so they avoid xray checks at airports.

deepnet 11y ago

Snowden wasn't 'on-site', AFAIK he had remote access as a private contractor. One of Snowden's main revelations was how little oversight there was. He was motivated to come forward by the abuses he saw the NSA database put to, rather than its mere existence. Snowden has reported his colleagues reguarly exfiltrated 'dirty pictures' from the NSA database. Snowden says 'nudies' were a 'commodity' traded around his colleagues. If one can trivially sneak out dirty pics without oversight then... Of course if Snowden could do it for the best of reasons, it is hard to believe moles and foriegn agents don't have similar access.

EthanHeilman 11y ago
Years before Snowden it was revealed that recorded sex was traded around the NSA. In 2008 it was revealed that NSA employees made mix tapes of phone sex they recorded: >Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator’s computer. "Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there’s good phone sex or there’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, ‘Wow, this was crazy’," Faulk told ABC News. - Wired: NSA Snooped on Innocent Americans’ Private Calls from Iraq, Former Operators Charge https://www.wired.com/2008/10/we-snooped-on-i/ https://www.wired.com/2008/10/we-snooped-on-i/
cookiecaper 11y ago
Do the people with that kind of access simply not understand the power they have? If Snowden had access, surely there are at least dozens of other 20-somethings running around able to read the correspondence of almost anyone in the country. Are we to believe that they really are so self-disciplined the only thing they'll look at are nude photos? Why haven't we seen industrial and political fallout from these guys?
- jellicle 11y ago
  Probably because they don't feel like spending the rest of their lives in permanent solitary confinement in ADX Florence.
  - cookiecaper 11y ago
    Yeah, but surely there would be a way to get the ball rolling without outing yourself. NSA analysts are going to be acquainted with at least the basic ways to stay anonymous online. If they found something interesting in the correspondence destined for a prominent politician or corporate officer, they could get the rumor mill started, or even make strategic leaks. Perhaps they already are doing it and we just aren't aware because they're covering their tracks well, but it seems like we'd see more aggressive targeting of interests that offend the likely demographic of NSA analysts, which to my knowledge hasn't happened. However many people have access to this, I don't know if it's dozens, hundreds, or thousands, have a frightening amount of power. They have to realize it. I guess they probably can't just type in "My Least Favorite Politician's Emails" into NSA internal search. Maybe this is the practical limitation that provides some nominal check on the power of these people?