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This misses the point of the Nacchio story. There is nothing to suggest that Qwest's refusal to cave in to NSA demands was motivated by Nacchio's desire for per

This misses the point of the Nacchio story. There is nothing to suggest that Qwest's refusal to cave in to NSA demands was motivated by Nacchio's desire for personal enrichment instead of a principled stance. At worst, Qwest was motivated by the risk of fines of up to $130,000 per violation per day for breaching Section 222 of the Communications Act, according to Qwest legal [1]. We would do well to stop focusing on Nacchio and more on the response of Qwest as a whole. The NSA retaliated at Qwest for their non-cooperation by cancelling secret government contracts [2]. [1] http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-ns... [2] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/08/more_on_the_nsa.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/08/more_on_the_n...

tptacek 10y ago
I don't understand your point. I was responding to this: Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio who resisted NSA spying is out of prison Nacchio's imprisonment has nothing to do with NSA spying; it has to do with his efforts to bilk Qwest shareholders out of their money. Those efforts are well-documented.
- joering2 10y ago
  He never said Nacchio was a hero like you wrote. Further.. where is the motive?? So they guy scams everyone and their dog out of 50MM and doesn't care about shareholders and is evil to the core.. but yet disagrees to play along with some government agency that would put a spy trap in his servers? If anything this could probably somehow helped him along the lines of some secret plea bargain.
  - tptacek 10y ago
    I'm not sure what motive you're asking about. His motive for running a pump-and-dump scam with Qwest's stock was almost certainly straightforward: to enrich himself and his family.
- nitrogen 10y ago
  The implication, as I'm sure you've heard, is that the stock drop was due in part to the canceled government contracts, and/or that Nacchio was investigated and prosecuted for somewhat common behavior because of Qwest's refusal to spy.

tptacek 10y ago

I don't understand your point. I was responding to this: Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio who resisted NSA spying is out of prison Nacchio's imprisonment has nothing to do with NSA spying; it has to do with his efforts to bilk Qwest shareholders out of their money. Those efforts are well-documented.

joering2 10y ago
He never said Nacchio was a hero like you wrote. Further.. where is the motive?? So they guy scams everyone and their dog out of 50MM and doesn't care about shareholders and is evil to the core.. but yet disagrees to play along with some government agency that would put a spy trap in his servers? If anything this could probably somehow helped him along the lines of some secret plea bargain.
- tptacek 10y ago
  I'm not sure what motive you're asking about. His motive for running a pump-and-dump scam with Qwest's stock was almost certainly straightforward: to enrich himself and his family.
nitrogen 10y ago
The implication, as I'm sure you've heard, is that the stock drop was due in part to the canceled government contracts, and/or that Nacchio was investigated and prosecuted for somewhat common behavior because of Qwest's refusal to spy.