5 ms·

So if I want the USA out of my system, all I have to do is create some dummy exes, dlls and regkeys on my system?

yellow_lead 6y ago
Seems like it. In other viruses (and I'm sure the NSA does this too), your system might actually be scanned for other known viruses and removed. In the NSA's case, these could be enemy threat actors.
- freedomben 6y ago
  It used to be standard operating practice as an attacker to close the holes through which you yourself gained access to prevent others from taking your prize. Ironically the most secure and cheapest thing a company could do was get compromised by a competent attacker who only wanted to launder small amounts of data or CPU cycles through your network, and in exchange keeps your servers all patched and up to date for you to keep out other attackers.
  - thombat 6y ago
    So be an e-aphid and let the kindly e-ants farm you?
    - kyuudou 6y ago
      e-symbiosis! e-harmony!
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
shrimp_emoji 6y ago
W-what if you use Linux? :B
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- asadlionpk 6y ago
  use Wine.
  - kyuudou 6y ago
    I'm sure the Linux kernel would never be compromised by state actors, even if a retired US Army general was on the board of directors[1] of the most popular Linux distro, or that the US' most infosec oriented intel agency didn't come up with the main method for RBAC with it[2]. Or that hardware and the numerous bits of firmware that control it would ever get back-doored by any state actor! "OpenBSD co-founder Theo de Raadt, cited as a top el8 target, angrily refused to discuss the compromise in late July of a file server maintained by the open-source, Unix-based operating-system project. On Aug. 1, a dangerous Trojan horse program was discovered amid the code for OpenBSD, which is used by thousands of organizations and renowned for its security. While de Raadt wouldn't comment on whether there were any suspects in the case, the lead article in the latest el8 newsletter, published in early July, contains an obvious smoking gun. The article begins with several lines of screen-display from what appears to be an OpenBSD.org system. The "w-command" output suggests that attackers had access to one of de Raadt's accounts."[3] [1]https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/shelton https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/shelton [2]https://www.nsa.gov/what-we-do/research/selinux/documentation/ https://www.nsa.gov/what-we-do/research/selinux/documentatio... [3]https://www.cc.gatech.edu/computing/acmnews/msg00221.html https://www.cc.gatech.edu/computing/acmnews/msg00221.html
    - imglorp 6y ago
      And there's the time someone did try to sneak something into an open source kernel [1]. The cool thing is, anyone can audit the kernels any time, and even if Theo's or Linus's accounts get compromised, the backdoor will be observable by everyone. Try that with Windows: we have no idea what's in there, we never will, and MS has zero incentive to tell us. 1. https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2013/10/09/the-linux-backdoor-attempt-of-2003/ https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2013/10/09/the-linux-backdoor-...
dsl 6y ago
No. Depending on the signature you trigger one of two things will likely happen: If it is an allied partners tool, they will reach out to the other intelligence agency and deconflict. The other agency will confirm access and share with the US. If it is a foreign toolkit (Iranian in this example), they have likely reverse engineered the tools and will piggy-back on them to access your system. Another option is 4th party collection where they use access to Iranian networks to siphon off the data the Iranians have collected on you. If either of these turn out to be bogus, it will be treated as a false positive and they will reinfect your machine ignoring the warning.
Zenst 6y ago
I wonder what kind of system you can create without having any specific country dependency at all. Certainly the breakdown in influence for say your standard PC will be hard to avoid any USA input, no matter the OS due to code submissions/contributions and then that's presuming honest location actors. Let alone binary blobs for drivers. So hardware and OS, you will be pushed to avoid any USA influence. After all USB, Intel did that, clearly USA influence, as are many standards, so I dare say that unless you build your own CPU and everything, you will be having some USA influence upon your system, one way or another. Let alone many other countries. Heck even all those 6502/Z80 systems - USA companies invented those, so not even the humble Sinclair ZX81 would still have USA in there. Though I'm sure that Russia and China do have computers without any USA in them. But then, you start to see how that works. Gets down to trust, which for some can be a choice of sandwiches they don't like but they need to eat. Most like the sandwiches, some like all three flavours and some make their own flavours, but using ingredients from all three. Some will bake their own bread and use the standard ingredients. Very few will make their own flour, bread, ingredients all by themselve. Coz they still use an over and knife made by somebody else. See, the efforts to exclude any potential influence is so deep that to completely remove them all is beyond the scope of many. So gets down to a balance, a trade off of trust.
- wyck 6y ago
  It's all about the hardware now, building out your own components isn't going to be easy, get a microprocessor that was build pre-1998 or try an open source hardware solution but who wants to do that..
ecmascript 6y ago
Kinda hard to get them out of your system if you run Windows which is made by a company located in the USA and that sends data constantly to their servers, some of which are based in the states.

Seems like it. In other viruses (and I'm sure the NSA does this too), your system might actually be scanned for other known viruses and removed. In the NSA's case, these could be enemy threat actors.

freedomben 6y ago
It used to be standard operating practice as an attacker to close the holes through which you yourself gained access to prevent others from taking your prize. Ironically the most secure and cheapest thing a company could do was get compromised by a competent attacker who only wanted to launder small amounts of data or CPU cycles through your network, and in exchange keeps your servers all patched and up to date for you to keep out other attackers.
- thombat 6y ago
  So be an e-aphid and let the kindly e-ants farm you?
  - kyuudou 6y ago
    e-symbiosis! e-harmony!

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

shrimp_emoji 6y ago

W-what if you use Linux? :B

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
asadlionpk 6y ago
use Wine.
- kyuudou 6y ago
  I'm sure the Linux kernel would never be compromised by state actors, even if a retired US Army general was on the board of directors[1] of the most popular Linux distro, or that the US' most infosec oriented intel agency didn't come up with the main method for RBAC with it[2]. Or that hardware and the numerous bits of firmware that control it would ever get back-doored by any state actor! "OpenBSD co-founder Theo de Raadt, cited as a top el8 target, angrily refused to discuss the compromise in late July of a file server maintained by the open-source, Unix-based operating-system project. On Aug. 1, a dangerous Trojan horse program was discovered amid the code for OpenBSD, which is used by thousands of organizations and renowned for its security. While de Raadt wouldn't comment on whether there were any suspects in the case, the lead article in the latest el8 newsletter, published in early July, contains an obvious smoking gun. The article begins with several lines of screen-display from what appears to be an OpenBSD.org system. The "w-command" output suggests that attackers had access to one of de Raadt's accounts."[3] [1]https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/shelton https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/shelton [2]https://www.nsa.gov/what-we-do/research/selinux/documentation/ https://www.nsa.gov/what-we-do/research/selinux/documentatio... [3]https://www.cc.gatech.edu/computing/acmnews/msg00221.html https://www.cc.gatech.edu/computing/acmnews/msg00221.html
  - imglorp 6y ago
    And there's the time someone did try to sneak something into an open source kernel [1]. The cool thing is, anyone can audit the kernels any time, and even if Theo's or Linus's accounts get compromised, the backdoor will be observable by everyone. Try that with Windows: we have no idea what's in there, we never will, and MS has zero incentive to tell us. 1. https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2013/10/09/the-linux-backdoor-attempt-of-2003/ https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2013/10/09/the-linux-backdoor-...

dsl 6y ago

No. Depending on the signature you trigger one of two things will likely happen: If it is an allied partners tool, they will reach out to the other intelligence agency and deconflict. The other agency will confirm access and share with the US. If it is a foreign toolkit (Iranian in this example), they have likely reverse engineered the tools and will piggy-back on them to access your system. Another option is 4th party collection where they use access to Iranian networks to siphon off the data the Iranians have collected on you. If either of these turn out to be bogus, it will be treated as a false positive and they will reinfect your machine ignoring the warning.

Zenst 6y ago

I wonder what kind of system you can create without having any specific country dependency at all. Certainly the breakdown in influence for say your standard PC will be hard to avoid any USA input, no matter the OS due to code submissions/contributions and then that's presuming honest location actors. Let alone binary blobs for drivers. So hardware and OS, you will be pushed to avoid any USA influence. After all USB, Intel did that, clearly USA influence, as are many standards, so I dare say that unless you build your own CPU and everything, you will be having some USA influence upon your system, one way or another. Let alone many other countries. Heck even all those 6502/Z80 systems - USA companies invented those, so not even the humble Sinclair ZX81 would still have USA in there. Though I'm sure that Russia and China do have computers without any USA in them. But then, you start to see how that works. Gets down to trust, which for some can be a choice of sandwiches they don't like but they need to eat. Most like the sandwiches, some like all three flavours and some make their own flavours, but using ingredients from all three. Some will bake their own bread and use the standard ingredients. Very few will make their own flour, bread, ingredients all by themselve. Coz they still use an over and knife made by somebody else. See, the efforts to exclude any potential influence is so deep that to completely remove them all is beyond the scope of many. So gets down to a balance, a trade off of trust.

wyck 6y ago
It's all about the hardware now, building out your own components isn't going to be easy, get a microprocessor that was build pre-1998 or try an open source hardware solution but who wants to do that..

ecmascript 6y ago

Kinda hard to get them out of your system if you run Windows which is made by a company located in the USA and that sends data constantly to their servers, some of which are based in the states.