3 ms·

The NSA don't seem to lack the technical talent to wantonly shit all over the Constitution. Plenty of HN posts laud people for working for the government, the

The NSA don't seem to lack the technical talent to wantonly shit all over the Constitution. Plenty of HN posts laud people for working for the government, the entity which engages in war crimes, torture, and mass surveillance.

Bartweiss 10y ago
They are hurting for it, though. There are still lots of people willing to join the TAO and the like, but the NSA has been pretty open about struggling to recruit top talent. Not all of that is ethical stuff, they lose people for reasons from salary to drug and felony screens, but some of it is. Bear in mind that the NSA only needs good talent to compromise systems, not elite talent. They have some elite talent (Stuxnet anyone?), but their domestic work is largely hacking theater. After all, you don't have to covery your tracks like a private hacker if you can just ship out an NSL to bury the matter. Hell, some of their projects involved a lawyer, a bunch of analysts, and no internal talent - they can just ask for what they want. https://www.cyberscoop.com/nsa-morale-down-keith-alexander-mike-rogers/ https://www.cyberscoop.com/nsa-morale-down-keith-alexander-m... http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/government/ph-ac-cn-nsa-leaving-meade-1211-20161210-story.html http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/government/ph-ac-cn-nsa-l...
- __derek__ 10y ago
  What's the TAO?
  - Bartweiss 10y ago
    Tailored Access Operations. It's the "offense" branch of the NSA, responsible for gaining access to external computer systems: often technologically, sometimes legislatively when they're domestic. They did QUANTUM and FOXACID among other access tools. It's a major part of the NSA, and generally considered to be where the bulk of the "serious hackers" work. The Equation Group is (probably) tied to TAO - they're the access group that was recently affected by the Shadow Brokers leak.
  - Tushon 10y ago
    This appears to be what OP was referring to (a cyber espionage sub-unit of the NSA): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations Bartweiss provided a better, short summary.
    - __derek__ 10y ago
      Thanks! In hindsight, I should have searched for 'tao nsa' rather than just 'tao'.
AJ007 10y ago
We know first hand what James Clapper thinks of the Constitution, today from the Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2016/12/15/james-clapper-has-a-classified-blog-it-is-called-intercept/ https://theintercept.com/2016/12/15/james-clapper-has-a-clas...

Bartweiss 10y ago

They are hurting for it, though. There are still lots of people willing to join the TAO and the like, but the NSA has been pretty open about struggling to recruit top talent. Not all of that is ethical stuff, they lose people for reasons from salary to drug and felony screens, but some of it is. Bear in mind that the NSA only needs good talent to compromise systems, not elite talent. They have some elite talent (Stuxnet anyone?), but their domestic work is largely hacking theater. After all, you don't have to covery your tracks like a private hacker if you can just ship out an NSL to bury the matter. Hell, some of their projects involved a lawyer, a bunch of analysts, and no internal talent - they can just ask for what they want. https://www.cyberscoop.com/nsa-morale-down-keith-alexander-mike-rogers/ https://www.cyberscoop.com/nsa-morale-down-keith-alexander-m... http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/government/ph-ac-cn-nsa-leaving-meade-1211-20161210-story.html http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/government/ph-ac-cn-nsa-l...

__derek__ 10y ago
What's the TAO?
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  Tailored Access Operations. It's the "offense" branch of the NSA, responsible for gaining access to external computer systems: often technologically, sometimes legislatively when they're domestic. They did QUANTUM and FOXACID among other access tools. It's a major part of the NSA, and generally considered to be where the bulk of the "serious hackers" work. The Equation Group is (probably) tied to TAO - they're the access group that was recently affected by the Shadow Brokers leak.
- Tushon 10y ago
  This appears to be what OP was referring to (a cyber espionage sub-unit of the NSA): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations Bartweiss provided a better, short summary.
  - __derek__ 10y ago
    Thanks! In hindsight, I should have searched for 'tao nsa' rather than just 'tao'.

AJ007 10y ago

We know first hand what James Clapper thinks of the Constitution, today from the Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2016/12/15/james-clapper-has-a-classified-blog-it-is-called-intercept/ https://theintercept.com/2016/12/15/james-clapper-has-a-clas...