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Your average American could quit working for 5 million dollars. They could live comfortably for the rest of their lives off that money, if well invested (read E

Your average American could quit working for 5 million dollars. They could live comfortably for the rest of their lives off that money, if well invested (read EFT for sp500) 5 million bucks is change for you average government. "Amazon made billions on my project and if I turn a blind eye to this I can retire, fuck them..." Sponsorship, for good or bad makes a lot of decisions simple.

imachine1980_ 2y ago
[flagged]
- SgtBastard 2y ago
  Friend, I read the comment that you’re replying to that if hostile governments wanted to backdoor our software supply-chains, it wouldn’t cost that much to corrupt an open source maintainer. Whereas, if it was the norm for well used OS projects to be sponsored, it’s far less likely to be tempted by relatively small bribes.
NonDairyMatt 2y ago
Probably wouldn't even need 5 Million. According the the PBS article about the 2 US Navy sailors arrested for spying around august of last year one of them was apparently only bribed $10k-15K for the year [1]. I was pretty shocked at first but it made sense that with the financial stress many face in today's market a 10K bribe would go along way and have a high return on investment especially if the potential payoff for a backdoor or zero-day is in the millions [2] [1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/2-u-s-navy-sailors-arrested-on-charges-tied-to-national-security-and-china https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/2-u-s-navy-sailors-arr... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_for_zero-day_exploits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_for_zero-day_exploits
- BobbyTables2 2y ago
  Even politicians are cheap these days. It astonishes me that for less than the price of a nice car, what people seem to be able to do.
  - eesmith 2y ago
    After Abscam in the late 1970s/early 1980s, one of the quote going expressed surprise not that politicians could be bought, but that they were so cheap. I cannot find that quote now.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  >2 US Navy sailors arrested for spying around august of last year one of them was apparently only bribed $10k-15K for the year This is exactly why investigations for security clearances focus mostly on a person's financial situation: someone who has a lot of debt and shows a pattern of poor financial management, i.e. someone who'd jump at a chance to make an extra measly $10k, is the kind of person they want to avoid giving a high security clearance to, because of incidents exactly like this. It's a common misconception that clearance holders who sell secrets make a lot of money doing so, and this just isn't the case: it's comparatively small amounts like this. For someone who's deep in debt and desperate, it doesn't take much to buy them.
kbenson 2y ago
Money isn't the motivator I worry about. Money requires people to make rational decisions about what they think they can get away with. Threatening someone's family? Who wouldn't be willing to turn their access to a project into a hack that has some possible theoretical future harm to protect their child? Sure, the circumstances to being able to leverage someone like this are rare, but the population which is susceptible is much larger than those willing to do somethibg similar for just money.

imachine1980_ 2y ago

[flagged]

SgtBastard 2y ago
Friend, I read the comment that you’re replying to that if hostile governments wanted to backdoor our software supply-chains, it wouldn’t cost that much to corrupt an open source maintainer. Whereas, if it was the norm for well used OS projects to be sponsored, it’s far less likely to be tempted by relatively small bribes.

NonDairyMatt 2y ago

Probably wouldn't even need 5 Million. According the the PBS article about the 2 US Navy sailors arrested for spying around august of last year one of them was apparently only bribed $10k-15K for the year [1]. I was pretty shocked at first but it made sense that with the financial stress many face in today's market a 10K bribe would go along way and have a high return on investment especially if the potential payoff for a backdoor or zero-day is in the millions [2] [1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/2-u-s-navy-sailors-arrested-on-charges-tied-to-national-security-and-china https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/2-u-s-navy-sailors-arr... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_for_zero-day_exploits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_for_zero-day_exploits

BobbyTables2 2y ago
Even politicians are cheap these days. It astonishes me that for less than the price of a nice car, what people seem to be able to do.
- eesmith 2y ago
  After Abscam in the late 1970s/early 1980s, one of the quote going expressed surprise not that politicians could be bought, but that they were so cheap. I cannot find that quote now.
shiroiushi 2y ago
>2 US Navy sailors arrested for spying around august of last year one of them was apparently only bribed $10k-15K for the year This is exactly why investigations for security clearances focus mostly on a person's financial situation: someone who has a lot of debt and shows a pattern of poor financial management, i.e. someone who'd jump at a chance to make an extra measly $10k, is the kind of person they want to avoid giving a high security clearance to, because of incidents exactly like this. It's a common misconception that clearance holders who sell secrets make a lot of money doing so, and this just isn't the case: it's comparatively small amounts like this. For someone who's deep in debt and desperate, it doesn't take much to buy them.

kbenson 2y ago

Money isn't the motivator I worry about. Money requires people to make rational decisions about what they think they can get away with. Threatening someone's family? Who wouldn't be willing to turn their access to a project into a hack that has some possible theoretical future harm to protect their child? Sure, the circumstances to being able to leverage someone like this are rare, but the population which is susceptible is much larger than those willing to do somethibg similar for just money.