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Maybe they could briefly mention what "anti-interdiction" actually means in this context? This way you have to open one of the links in the first paragraph and
by rob74 4y ago
Maybe they could briefly mention what "anti-interdiction" actually means in this context? This way you have to open one of the links in the first paragraph and scroll down to get to the following key phrase:
> The word interdiction in our context refers to a laptop being intercepted between the time it leaves our fulfillment center and the time you receive and open the box.
That's very interesting, because it has nothing to do with the usual meaning of "interdiction", which is (1) "the action of prohibiting or forbidding something" or
(2) "the action of intercepting and preventing the movement of a prohibited commodity or person". So my first thought when reading "anti-interdiction" was "are they trying to stop others from forbidding something?". Ok, you could somehow derive their meaning of "interdiction" from (2), but it's a stretch. Also it's contrary to the etymology - from Latin inter "between" + dicere "to speak, to say". I mean, the bad guys are not saying something, they're doing something to your laptop. Maybe "interfaction" (doing something in between) would be a better word?
- jhugo 4y agoAnti-interception would make more sense, but it doesn't sound nearly as badass, and when you're offering a service that 99.9% of people don't need, sounding badass helps a lot.
- rob74 4y agoI don't know, I mean my made-up word "interfaction" sounds a lot like "infraction" which is "a violation or infringement of a law or agreement", so "anti-interfaction" has a certain level of "badass-ness" as well. Or people will think that you misspelled "infraction", which would be not so good. Oh well...
- bee_rider 4y agoInterfaction looks like it means between-factions, in fact I could swear I've seen it used like that... anyway, it looks to me like it would be describing some sort of civil unrest (interfactional fighting broke out in <country> today...) or bureaucratic nonsense in a company (BigSoftwareCompany was unable to respond to their upstart rivals due to interfactional disagreements about which pointy haired boss would get more seats to fill). Neither is really badass -- the latter is mostly tedious, the former is often horrifying.
- 0xbadc0de5 4y agoThe term interdiction is used heavily within three letter agencies across many governments and countries to refer to interception (and presumably, modification) of electronics hardware. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdiction https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdiction
- rob74 4y agoOk, TIL... I still think it's nonsense to use this term, but probably the NSA preferred this one rather than using "interception" or similar so it could more easily present it as legitimate.