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Yeah, he's wrong that the most paranoid weren't assuming how bad it was. If anything, Enemy of the State had general public worried with Echelon revelations and

Yeah, he's wrong that the most paranoid weren't assuming how bad it was. If anything, Enemy of the State had general public worried with Echelon revelations and technical details of Puzzle Palace making me certain they were doing mass surveillance and hacking. At least within a few years of 9/11 and Patriot Act. They'd do whatever they (a) could and (b) had to do for their mission. Far as weakening, we were noting they did a lot of things that were public knowledge that indicated they prioritized shoddy products and surveillance over security. I had an essay listing most of them. I might dig it up and submit it Thursday if anyone is interested.

Fnoord 7y ago
I remember people in infosec and *NIX communities being paranoid about the NSA back in the early '00s. Americans who were not trusting their own government. I myself only heard about the CIA and FBI. I familiarized myself with the concept of NSA and shrugged it off. "Never hear anything about those. Probably a very small organization..." In hindsight, I was right, but I didn't get with the program after 9/11 (see the accounts of William Binney [1] and Edward Snowden's recently Permanent Record). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_(intelligence_official) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_(intelligence_o...