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If we weren’t hacking into Yandex, I’d be asking for new chiefs at the intelligence agencies who would. What the heck of the point of an agency if you’re not ga
by sprafa 7y ago
If we weren’t hacking into Yandex, I’d be asking for new chiefs at the intelligence agencies who would. What the heck of the point of an agency if you’re not gathering intelligence?
- saagarjha 7y agoWhat does hacking into Yandex give us other than a reason for Russia to do the same?
- sprafa 7y agoDo you think they don’t?
- empath75 7y agoThey are doing the same. Intelligence is dirty business but it has to be done.
- fwip 7y agoMust it be done?
- astazangasta 7y agoNo. The intelligence is crap; the CIA has missed basically everything important in its history. It is frequently politicized. It only goes to the President, who might ignore it or misinterpret it. We do much better just by reading newspapers well.
- sk0g 7y ago> missed basically everything important in its history Or the things it has caught don't make newspaper headlines. Because the plots were defused, and thus can't be used to cause chaos and fear in citizens, something newspapers seem to delight in.
- luckylion 7y ago> Or the things it has caught don't make newspaper headlines. Because the plots were defused, and thus can't be used to cause chaos and fear in citizens, something newspapers seem to delight in. That sounds like conspiracy thinking. The media isn't able to suppress the CIA's good deeds, and I don't believe they'd try. "Big alien invasion averted thanks to heroic CIA agent" is a great headline. So great in fact, that fiction books are written on that premise. With all the minor and major leaks from the intelligence community, they're supposed to have a super tight and successful conspiracy going to hide the fact that they are actually effective? I have some doubts, both on the technical part (large conspiracies are hard) and the reasoning.
- sprafa 7y agoThe CIA constantly says “we have prevented X terrorist attacks in the last Y years“ and nobody believes them
- ionised 7y agoWe have no reason to believe them. They have a demonstrable history of lies and terrorist-style anti-democratic activities themselves for political and economic purposes.
- sprafa 7y agoThere’s no arguing with you. You’d rather believe that you’re being persecuted than in the complexities of actual reality.
- dang 7y agoPlease don't cross into personal attack on HN. It doesn't help, and provokes worse from others. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- waste_monk 7y agoYes
- izacus 7y agoWhy? Based on what military / social doctrine must aggressive attacking of Yandex "MUST" be done? What's there to gain and what's there to lose? Can you explain the reasoning beyond "yes"?
- webmobdev 7y ago> Based on what military / social doctrine must aggressive attacking of Yandex "MUST" be done? Information is power and the "right" information, even more so.
- izacus 7y agoWhy does it have to be done this way? Can you provide more sources that show that aggresively attacking a nation's company this way is actually outweighing the downsides? Note that I'm not questioning the existence of intelligence services, I'm asking you to provide basis that directly attacking companies like that is worth it. Also where's the line that makes this "dirty" business worth it?
- sc4les 7y agoIt’s a dance. You complain about every hack, every interference in elections and claim moral superiority while doing the exact same hoping no one finds out but when they do always shoot the messenger instead of defending yourself. Thanks WikiLeaks for showing the world
- sonnyblarney 7y ago"every interference in elections and claim moral superiority while doing the exact same hoping no one finds out " No, the West does not claim 'moral superiority' over Russia due to any kind of ostensible 'non participation' in espionage. There is no 'hoping they don't find out' because it's accepted that it's happening. We only 'hope they don't find out' about specific activities.
- dsl 7y agoI have tracked a number of state sponsored actors from all sorts of countries back to Yandex accounts. They are the go to account provider when you need semi-legit emails and don't want the provider to cooperate with the US. It would give US intelligence insights in to operations from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, etc.
- sonnyblarney 7y ago"What does hacking into Yandex give us" Russia does not need this or any other reason, they are already doing this to the extent they can. The public nature of this will provide some political cover, but that's it. As to 'what it gets' it entirely depends on the kind of information that was obtained, the inherent risks and cost, the targets etc.. Maybe there were specific targets, a specific needs, maybe they were casting a net - who knows.
- FDSGSG 7y ago>other than a reason for Russia to do the same? lmao why would Russia need this reason?