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> where was the NSA/CIA on this? Great question. Why isn't the NSA working to secure the systems of Americans and our companies? Instead, it seems like they ar

> where was the NSA/CIA on this? Great question. Why isn't the NSA working to secure the systems of Americans and our companies? Instead, it seems like they are devoting most of their resources to inserting back doors into commonly used software and generally subverting secure systems. Oh, and letting people like Snowden steal it all and give it to Russia. Very frustrating to watch the incompetence, indifference, or whatever is going on.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
This isn't really the NSA's domain -- they're a more technical agency than that. Where the Russians penetrated actual systems -- eg, the DNC hack -- the NSA was there alerting people and discussing attacks on the systems during the election. They intentionally didn't mention the possible collusion between Trump and Russian during the election, not to be seen as trying to influence it, but they were anything but silent about Russia attacking US computer systems. Combating mechanized state propaganda inside the US isn't really anyone's job, thought it could fall under the FBI counterintelligence mandate. The openness with which the US conducts its society operates against it here -- the government doesn't directly manage propaganda and doesn't have a division tasked with disabling foreign propaganda under the banner of protecting first amendment freedoms. (After all, how you determine propaganda from funding people who just happen to think that way in a free society?) There are numerous reasons that experts in the field avoided collaborating with the government post Snowden, compounding the ineffectiveness of the US here. This is a real challenge posed to democracy -- how do we stabilize a national identity and discourse with open memetic borders and having both a past that contains some really nasty business and a society divided on pressing social topics that can be used as wedge issues? I don't think it's constructive to whine that the government didn't just solve it for us -- they shouldn't, in a free society. The price of democracy is that we, as citizens, need to maintain vigilance on constantly be discussing how to collectively deal with these hard issues.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago

This isn't really the NSA's domain -- they're a more technical agency than that. Where the Russians penetrated actual systems -- eg, the DNC hack -- the NSA was there alerting people and discussing attacks on the systems during the election. They intentionally didn't mention the possible collusion between Trump and Russian during the election, not to be seen as trying to influence it, but they were anything but silent about Russia attacking US computer systems. Combating mechanized state propaganda inside the US isn't really anyone's job, thought it could fall under the FBI counterintelligence mandate. The openness with which the US conducts its society operates against it here -- the government doesn't directly manage propaganda and doesn't have a division tasked with disabling foreign propaganda under the banner of protecting first amendment freedoms. (After all, how you determine propaganda from funding people who just happen to think that way in a free society?) There are numerous reasons that experts in the field avoided collaborating with the government post Snowden, compounding the ineffectiveness of the US here. This is a real challenge posed to democracy -- how do we stabilize a national identity and discourse with open memetic borders and having both a past that contains some really nasty business and a society divided on pressing social topics that can be used as wedge issues? I don't think it's constructive to whine that the government didn't just solve it for us -- they shouldn't, in a free society. The price of democracy is that we, as citizens, need to maintain vigilance on constantly be discussing how to collectively deal with these hard issues.