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It is espionage by the US intelligence community against US companies. A lot of these guys should be in prison. I've repeatedly said on HN -- if the US tech co

by AJ007 9y ago

It is espionage by the US intelligence community against US companies. A lot of these guys should be in prison. I've repeatedly said on HN -- if the US tech companies can't build the most secure systems possible, the US government itself will not be able to secure their own systems. Secure devices and communication is not a given nor will it become easier.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Are you of the opinion that we should dismantle our military? Because that's what you'd literally be doing by sending NSA employees to prison. They are military. It was a cyberweapon. That's the point of a cyber weapon. Russians stole it from the NSA. Yes, that's incompetence, but an attacker only has to get lucky once. It's much harder to defend a cyberweapon than a tomahawk missile. Does that mean we shouldn't build cyberweapons? No. That's just how cyberweapons are. That's the reality we live in now, and the world will just have to deal with it. There's nothing to be done, is there? Not unless you're suggesting that computers should never be used for offensive capabilities, which from a game theory perspective means that country will be powerless in the digital arena.
- stale2002 9y ago
  If the people working for the NSA don't want to go to prison, then maybe they should stop committing treason by breaking our constitution and illegally spying on Americans through illegal programs. Don't do the crime if you cant do the time. Personally, I'd rather our military NOT be full of people who are willing to do this kind of thing. If this discussion was about missiles, and the gov agency in charge of the missiles were using them on Americans, I'd say that they should go to jail as well. You are right. These cyber exploits are weapons. And they should stop using those weapons on Americans, as a multitude of leaks have shown that they do, through mass spying and mass data collection programs.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    It's not productive to reduce the argument to this extreme. There's no way for the NSA to do what the NSA does without searching for exploits and weaponizing them. That's the whole reason to have an NSA.
    - zon3h 9y ago
      Its all good until they get caught, then they should go yo prison like the rest of criminals.

by AJ007 9y ago

sillysaurus3 9y ago

Are you of the opinion that we should dismantle our military? Because that's what you'd literally be doing by sending NSA employees to prison. They are military. It was a cyberweapon. That's the point of a cyber weapon. Russians stole it from the NSA. Yes, that's incompetence, but an attacker only has to get lucky once. It's much harder to defend a cyberweapon than a tomahawk missile. Does that mean we shouldn't build cyberweapons? No. That's just how cyberweapons are. That's the reality we live in now, and the world will just have to deal with it. There's nothing to be done, is there? Not unless you're suggesting that computers should never be used for offensive capabilities, which from a game theory perspective means that country will be powerless in the digital arena.

stale2002 9y ago
If the people working for the NSA don't want to go to prison, then maybe they should stop committing treason by breaking our constitution and illegally spying on Americans through illegal programs. Don't do the crime if you cant do the time. Personally, I'd rather our military NOT be full of people who are willing to do this kind of thing. If this discussion was about missiles, and the gov agency in charge of the missiles were using them on Americans, I'd say that they should go to jail as well. You are right. These cyber exploits are weapons. And they should stop using those weapons on Americans, as a multitude of leaks have shown that they do, through mass spying and mass data collection programs.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  It's not productive to reduce the argument to this extreme. There's no way for the NSA to do what the NSA does without searching for exploits and weaponizing them. That's the whole reason to have an NSA.
  - zon3h 9y ago
    Its all good until they get caught, then they should go yo prison like the rest of criminals.