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That gives a view into what happened yesterday. Being able to eavesdrop on comms can tell you what will happen tomorrow.

jacquesm 5y ago
Sure, 'bring me some potatoes tomorrow'. What will happen tomorrow? But terrorist suspect 'A' communicating with arms supplier 'B' is far more significant than terrorist suspect 'A' communicating with arms supplier 'B' asking 'B' to bring some potatoes tomorrow. The value can definitely be in the payload, when both parties believe they are using a secure channel, see 'Encrochat' and a couple of others like it. But most of the time the things you should really worry about are going to look like 'bring me some potatoes'. Boots on the ground, enough people to follow up on the leads available today would help a lot, and a budget to go with it to make that sustainable. Not more tech toys. Anyway, I've written enough about this subject by now.
- rad_gruchalski 5y ago
  There have been plenty of boots on the ground in a couple of places in the last two decades and both are massive failures. In the meantime people of the western world share everything for free with everyone.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    I think you misunderstand the meaning of 'boots on the ground' in the context of intelligence work.
    - rad_gruchalski 5y ago
      Ah, you mean like Stasi or Polish UB, or OMON. Your original answer seems to be missing a clarification on what boots you mean. Yeah, that might work in conjunction with a full on oppression system. Were there no “intelligence boots on the ground” in the places I have mentioned?
      - jacquesm 5y ago
        This whole affair is about sigint, electronic signals monitoring in the hope that something worth of more intelligent processing pops out. This works, but the amount of funds required versus the amount of output given all of the sigint operations at work today is enormous before you start moving the needle. It's the human intelligence gathering where these groups are deficient, but that doesn't scale, so just like the start-up investors the governments believe that they will be able to do this on the cheap by widening the net. But that won't work, it just means they'll catch a ton more krill, and very few extra fish.

jacquesm 5y ago

Sure, 'bring me some potatoes tomorrow'. What will happen tomorrow? But terrorist suspect 'A' communicating with arms supplier 'B' is far more significant than terrorist suspect 'A' communicating with arms supplier 'B' asking 'B' to bring some potatoes tomorrow. The value can definitely be in the payload, when both parties believe they are using a secure channel, see 'Encrochat' and a couple of others like it. But most of the time the things you should really worry about are going to look like 'bring me some potatoes'. Boots on the ground, enough people to follow up on the leads available today would help a lot, and a budget to go with it to make that sustainable. Not more tech toys. Anyway, I've written enough about this subject by now.

rad_gruchalski 5y ago
There have been plenty of boots on the ground in a couple of places in the last two decades and both are massive failures. In the meantime people of the western world share everything for free with everyone.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  I think you misunderstand the meaning of 'boots on the ground' in the context of intelligence work.
  - rad_gruchalski 5y ago
    Ah, you mean like Stasi or Polish UB, or OMON. Your original answer seems to be missing a clarification on what boots you mean. Yeah, that might work in conjunction with a full on oppression system. Were there no “intelligence boots on the ground” in the places I have mentioned?
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      This whole affair is about sigint, electronic signals monitoring in the hope that something worth of more intelligent processing pops out. This works, but the amount of funds required versus the amount of output given all of the sigint operations at work today is enormous before you start moving the needle. It's the human intelligence gathering where these groups are deficient, but that doesn't scale, so just like the start-up investors the governments believe that they will be able to do this on the cheap by widening the net. But that won't work, it just means they'll catch a ton more krill, and very few extra fish.