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I agree. Nobody should underestimate the Mossad: https://youtu.be/bJujIwtdk8w https://youtu.be/bJujIwtdk8w

by wyclif 7y ago

bigiain 7y ago
From my favourite Usenix paper (https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf): Basically, you’re either dealing with Mossad or not-Mossad. If your adversary is not-Mossad, then you’ll probably be fine if you pick a good password and don’t respond to emails from ChEaPestPAiNPi11s@virus-basket.biz.ru. If your adversary is the Mossad, YOU’RE GONNA DIE AND THERE’S NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. The Mossad is not intimidated by the fact that you employ https:// https://. If the Mossad wants your data, they’re going to use a drone to replace your cellphone with a piece of uranium that’s shaped like a cellphone, and when you die of tumors filled with tumors, they’re going to hold a press conference and say “It wasn’t us” as they wear t-shirts that say “IT WAS DEFINITELY US,” and then they’re going to buy all of your stuff at your estate sale so that they can directly look at the photos of your vacation instead of reading your insipid emails about them. And: Threat: The Mossad doing Mossad things with your email account Solution: Magical amulets? Fake your own death, move into a submarine? YOU’RE STILL GONNA BE MOSSAD’ED UPON (That's perhaps a little too light-hearted humor, considering the youtube link in the post I'm responding to...)
- WC3w6pXxgGd 7y ago
  Don't f*ck with Israel ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- tekknolagi 7y ago
  That is an amazing article.
  - bigiain 7y ago
    Mikkens has a track record of writing stuff like that. It's worth hunting down and reading pretty much everything he's published.
- orbifold 7y ago
  Fun fact: The mossad ran a job ad on facebook a while ago, which involved a sequence of riddles. First discover a server based on some random seeming sequence of characters on an image. Then you had to solve a number of programming puzzles. I stopped at the third one, because I don't actually want to work there.
  - jackjeff 7y ago
    Suddenly I’m less impressed in the Mossad. Really they recruit hackers on FB? If I do a quick samples of people I know, there’s a super high correlation in being a hacker/developer and not using Facebook. Maybe they should try HN instead.
  - bigiain 7y ago
    And now orbifold is on one of their lists... Have fun in the submarine!
- DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
  classic Mickens. I just died laughing. thanks for making my day
- Udik 7y ago
  > ...they’re going to hold a press conference and say “It wasn’t us” as they wear t-shirts that say “IT WAS DEFINITELY US,” and then they’re going to buy all of your stuff at your estate sale so that they can directly look at the photos of your vacation instead of reading your insipid emails about them. That's basically Israel's attitude on anything: doing anything they want without any kind of boundaries, then denying brazenly they did it, while doing it again and again. Like having snipers shooting at thousands of civilians, kids, journalists, paramedics, who are protesting inside their own borders.
  - toyg 7y ago
    > doing anything they want [...] then denying brazingly That’s actually a time-honoured Russian/Soviet SOP, currently embodied by Mr. Sergey Lavrov. The USSR had a lot of influence on early Israel, and it shows in many little things like this.
    - Udik 7y ago
      I'd say it has more to do with the very Jewish concept of chutzpah. According to Wikipedia, the term is used "to describe someone who has overstepped the boundaries of accepted behavior" and "Chutzpah amounts to a total denial of personal responsibility, which renders others speechless and incredulous". The term used to have a very negative connotation, but interestingly, Google says "usually used approvingly". It seems to fit pretty well the descriptions of the "rudeness" and "boldness" in common Israeli culture.
      - bigiain 7y ago
        > It seems to fit pretty well the descriptions of the "rudeness" and "boldness" in common Israeli culture. Also seems to be a pretty accurate description of SV/startup culture too...
  - vxNsr 7y ago
    > Like having snipers shooting at thousands of civilians, kids, journalists, paramedics, who are protesting inside their own borders. Ugh... this is so myopic and sounds like you're intentionally not telling the truth. all those "kids", "journalists", and "paramedics" were shown to be carrying bombs or other explosives.
- guido_vongraum 7y ago
  I would have labeled the article a piece of defeatism disguised as satire, if not for this: Security research is the continual process of discovering that your spaceship is a deathtrap. However, as John F. Kennedy once said, “SCREW IT WE’RE GOING TO THE MOON.” I cannot live my life in fear because someone named PhreakusMaximus at DefConHat 2014 showed that you can induce peanut allergies at a distance using an SMS message and a lock of your victim’s hair. If that’s how it is, I accept it and move on. Thinking about security is like thinking about where to ride your motorcycle: the safe places are no fun, and the fun places are not safe. I shall ride wherever my spirit takes me, and I shall find my Gigantic Martian Insect Party, and I will, uh, probably be rent asunder by huge cryptozoological mandibles, but I will die like Thomas Jefferson: free, defiant, and without a security label. This I like.

I agree. Nobody should underestimate the Mossad: https://youtu.be/bJujIwtdk8w https://youtu.be/bJujIwtdk8w

by wyclif 7y ago

I agree. Nobody should underestimate the Mossad: https://youtu.be/bJujIwtdk8w https://youtu.be/bJujIwtdk8w

From my favourite Usenix paper (https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf): Basically, you’re either dealing with Mossad or not-Mossad. If your adversary is not-Mossad, then you’ll probably be fine if you pick a good password and don’t respond to emails from ChEaPestPAiNPi11s@virus-basket.biz.ru. If your adversary is the Mossad, YOU’RE GONNA DIE AND THERE’S NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. The Mossad is not intimidated by the fact that you employ https:// https://. If the Mossad wants your data, they’re going to use a drone to replace your cellphone with a piece of uranium that’s shaped like a cellphone, and when you die of tumors filled with tumors, they’re going to hold a press conference and say “It wasn’t us” as they wear t-shirts that say “IT WAS DEFINITELY US,” and then they’re going to buy all of your stuff at your estate sale so that they can directly look at the photos of your vacation instead of reading your insipid emails about them. And: Threat: The Mossad doing Mossad things with your email account Solution: Magical amulets? Fake your own death, move into a submarine? YOU’RE STILL GONNA BE MOSSAD’ED UPON (That's perhaps a little too light-hearted humor, considering the youtube link in the post I'm responding to...)

WC3w6pXxgGd 7y ago
Don't f*ck with Israel ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
tekknolagi 7y ago
That is an amazing article.
- bigiain 7y ago
  Mikkens has a track record of writing stuff like that. It's worth hunting down and reading pretty much everything he's published.
orbifold 7y ago
Fun fact: The mossad ran a job ad on facebook a while ago, which involved a sequence of riddles. First discover a server based on some random seeming sequence of characters on an image. Then you had to solve a number of programming puzzles. I stopped at the third one, because I don't actually want to work there.
- jackjeff 7y ago
  Suddenly I’m less impressed in the Mossad. Really they recruit hackers on FB? If I do a quick samples of people I know, there’s a super high correlation in being a hacker/developer and not using Facebook. Maybe they should try HN instead.
- bigiain 7y ago
  And now orbifold is on one of their lists... Have fun in the submarine!
DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
classic Mickens. I just died laughing. thanks for making my day
Udik 7y ago
> ...they’re going to hold a press conference and say “It wasn’t us” as they wear t-shirts that say “IT WAS DEFINITELY US,” and then they’re going to buy all of your stuff at your estate sale so that they can directly look at the photos of your vacation instead of reading your insipid emails about them. That's basically Israel's attitude on anything: doing anything they want without any kind of boundaries, then denying brazenly they did it, while doing it again and again. Like having snipers shooting at thousands of civilians, kids, journalists, paramedics, who are protesting inside their own borders.
- toyg 7y ago
  > doing anything they want [...] then denying brazingly That’s actually a time-honoured Russian/Soviet SOP, currently embodied by Mr. Sergey Lavrov. The USSR had a lot of influence on early Israel, and it shows in many little things like this.
  - Udik 7y ago
    I'd say it has more to do with the very Jewish concept of chutzpah. According to Wikipedia, the term is used "to describe someone who has overstepped the boundaries of accepted behavior" and "Chutzpah amounts to a total denial of personal responsibility, which renders others speechless and incredulous". The term used to have a very negative connotation, but interestingly, Google says "usually used approvingly". It seems to fit pretty well the descriptions of the "rudeness" and "boldness" in common Israeli culture.
    - bigiain 7y ago
      > It seems to fit pretty well the descriptions of the "rudeness" and "boldness" in common Israeli culture. Also seems to be a pretty accurate description of SV/startup culture too...
- vxNsr 7y ago
  > Like having snipers shooting at thousands of civilians, kids, journalists, paramedics, who are protesting inside their own borders. Ugh... this is so myopic and sounds like you're intentionally not telling the truth. all those "kids", "journalists", and "paramedics" were shown to be carrying bombs or other explosives.
guido_vongraum 7y ago
I would have labeled the article a piece of defeatism disguised as satire, if not for this: Security research is the continual process of discovering that your spaceship is a deathtrap. However, as John F. Kennedy once said, “SCREW IT WE’RE GOING TO THE MOON.” I cannot live my life in fear because someone named PhreakusMaximus at DefConHat 2014 showed that you can induce peanut allergies at a distance using an SMS message and a lock of your victim’s hair. If that’s how it is, I accept it and move on. Thinking about security is like thinking about where to ride your motorcycle: the safe places are no fun, and the fun places are not safe. I shall ride wherever my spirit takes me, and I shall find my Gigantic Martian Insect Party, and I will, uh, probably be rent asunder by huge cryptozoological mandibles, but I will die like Thomas Jefferson: free, defiant, and without a security label. This I like.