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Is it the powerful servers making the difference here? Or the coveted back haul connections which have access to the data passing by? I suppose it's both but t

Is it the powerful servers making the difference here? Or the coveted back haul connections which have access to the data passing by? I suppose it's both but the latter is a more scarce resource

embedding-shape 10mo ago
It used to be that they needed to dedicate entire rooms for interception hardware, and tighter maintenance schedules. Nowadays, the devices they use are tiny in comparison, way easier to hide. I've encountered infrastructure companies discovering hardware that doesn't belong to them, in their local infrastructure, and when detected and reported, law enforcement came to pick it up, and refused to talk about it. That case still hasn't had a resolution, and it's about 4 years ago now.
- kachapopopow 10mo ago
  be afraid of that random raspberry pi device dangling off the switch. just kidding, it's just backup access via the datacenter wifi.
  - DANmode 10mo ago
    for everyone
- dylan604 10mo ago
  > and when detected and reported, law enforcement came to pick it up, and refused to talk about it. By "law enforcement", I'd assume the feds and not local. Why not just say which agency? Wouldn't this pretty much be FBI? Why use such a generic term?
  - embedding-shape 10mo ago
    Because it wasn't in the US, and the specifics don't really matter. All countries I've lived in so far has had similar capabilities for sure, and practiced them too.
    - dylan604 10mo ago
      okay fine. s/FBI/whateverAgency/ the point is, this isn't the action of local authorities. this is state level activity. if it is local, that's a level of sophistication and corruption that I have ever been aware.
      - r_lee 10mo ago
        Just for context in many smaller countries outside the US there isn't that much of a "local" thing like there is in the US, I.e. the national authorities may handle a lot of stuff that may be done by the local authorities in the US
  - Natfan 10mo ago
    what an incredibly USAmerican-centric comment.
    - embedding-shape 10mo ago
      That's OK and fair I think, even as a European. HN is fairly US-centric, both submissions, users and comments. I think after more than a decade here, you get to used to everyone assuming you're American and capitalist by default, which given the company who owns HN, kind of makes sense ;)
      - DANmode 10mo ago
        I like the adjacent conversations just as much, or more. We(?) more or less want this to be a place of general curiosity, perhaps revolving loosely around those things, but not tightly clung to them.
- DANmode 10mo ago
  > That case still hasn't had a resolution, and it's about 4 years ago now. Sure it has! The resolution was “go fuck yourself, what the fuck are you going to do about it?”. Y’know: respectfully.
sambull 10mo ago
It's the servers specifically the parallelization with more cores and better math functions like AVX512.

Is it the powerful servers making the difference here? Or the coveted back haul connections which have access to the data passing by? I suppose it's both but the latter is a more scarce resource

embedding-shape 10mo ago

It used to be that they needed to dedicate entire rooms for interception hardware, and tighter maintenance schedules. Nowadays, the devices they use are tiny in comparison, way easier to hide. I've encountered infrastructure companies discovering hardware that doesn't belong to them, in their local infrastructure, and when detected and reported, law enforcement came to pick it up, and refused to talk about it. That case still hasn't had a resolution, and it's about 4 years ago now.

kachapopopow 10mo ago
be afraid of that random raspberry pi device dangling off the switch. just kidding, it's just backup access via the datacenter wifi.
- DANmode 10mo ago
  for everyone
dylan604 10mo ago
> and when detected and reported, law enforcement came to pick it up, and refused to talk about it. By "law enforcement", I'd assume the feds and not local. Why not just say which agency? Wouldn't this pretty much be FBI? Why use such a generic term?
- embedding-shape 10mo ago
  Because it wasn't in the US, and the specifics don't really matter. All countries I've lived in so far has had similar capabilities for sure, and practiced them too.
  - dylan604 10mo ago
    okay fine. s/FBI/whateverAgency/ the point is, this isn't the action of local authorities. this is state level activity. if it is local, that's a level of sophistication and corruption that I have ever been aware.
    - r_lee 10mo ago
      Just for context in many smaller countries outside the US there isn't that much of a "local" thing like there is in the US, I.e. the national authorities may handle a lot of stuff that may be done by the local authorities in the US
- Natfan 10mo ago
  what an incredibly USAmerican-centric comment.
  - embedding-shape 10mo ago
    That's OK and fair I think, even as a European. HN is fairly US-centric, both submissions, users and comments. I think after more than a decade here, you get to used to everyone assuming you're American and capitalist by default, which given the company who owns HN, kind of makes sense ;)
    - DANmode 10mo ago
      I like the adjacent conversations just as much, or more. We(?) more or less want this to be a place of general curiosity, perhaps revolving loosely around those things, but not tightly clung to them.
DANmode 10mo ago
> That case still hasn't had a resolution, and it's about 4 years ago now. Sure it has! The resolution was “go fuck yourself, what the fuck are you going to do about it?”. Y’know: respectfully.

sambull 10mo ago

It's the servers specifically the parallelization with more cores and better math functions like AVX512.