8 ms·

Four-star general in eye of U.S. cyber storm

80 points by forgotAgain 13y ago

ape4 13y ago
Well there's Facebook.
godgod 13y ago
Somehow we don't believe you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center
samstave 13y ago
How can we believe that when there is that previous NSA guy who stated that he wrote the algo's that allow this spying to occur? His name is Binny: http://publicintelligence.net/nsa-spies-on-email/ http://publicintelligence.net/nsa-spies-on-email/
smackfu 13y ago
That was from last month.
- joshuahedlund 13y ago
  I believe the point is that this month's news seems to contradict it: > "The great irony is we're the only ones not spying on the American people," he quipped.
will_brown 13y ago
>"He's lasted as long as he has because he's focused and he's persistent. I've never heard him yell," I beg to differ, it is like J. Edgar Hover, who could not be removed from his post as FBI director simply because he had files on everyone who might attempt such an ill fated move, including Presidents - especially Presidents. Only imagine if J. Edgar Hover also had every electronic communication ever sent or received...scary stuff.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
obviouslygreen 13y ago
I had to try very hard not to (very uncharitably and hopefully incorrectly) assume that this guy could not possibly have the slightest clue what's going on. Shame on me for both ageism and for just dismissing government workers out of hand... ...but... come on. Aides say the general often scores over 1 million points on the "Bejeweled Blitz" online puzzle game. Yes, this came second hand (if it was said at all). No, he did not say it himself, and no, playing games is neither a crime nor a failure of character... but come on, guys that is not the way to promote your boss' image as a highly-educated security expert (which his credentials suggest to at least some extent). Based on the article, I think a very informative perspective could be that of someone who heard him speak at Defcon. Anyone?
- jessaustin 13y ago
  Skipping Dark Tangent's self-congratulatory intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz0ejKersnM&feature=player_detailpage#t=173s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz0ejKersnM&feature=playe...
nikcub 13y ago
> On one flight, he and his aide-de-camp learned "BackTrack," It only took him one flight to learn to use 40+ apps? Impressive, i've been using some of these apps for ~15 years and still don't know them well. (BackTrack is nothing more than a Linux distro with a bunch of pentest apps - metasploit, nmap, w3af, etc. preinstalled)
- charonn0 13y ago
  It only took him one flight to learn to use 40+ apps? Impressive True, but this is a guy who: (...) often scores over 1 million points on the "Bejeweled Blitz" online puzzle game. so he's obviously quite 1337.
  - nikcub 13y ago
    I can just imagine the pre-briefing with NSA's PR people "we need to establish your tech credentials, what are you really good at" "err, Bejeweled Blitz?"
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - espadrine 13y ago
    Usually, when I brag about scoring a million points at a game, you should infer I'm proud to have hacked it. I'm not patient enough to earn all those points. When reading this line, I genuinely assumed they meant he hacked the app. Isn't that the case?
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  Don't apply legal standards of textual analysis to a news wire article; it only results in distraction. It's certainly reasonable to develop basic familiarity with a software suite during a plane flight.
ck2 13y ago
Here's the thing - all this and they've announced ZERO arrests. Whatever the heck they are doing, they are spending a fortune, eroding everyone's privacy forever, and accomplishing nothing. Can't wait for a few years when they get hacked and a foreign government steals all the data. Of course we will never know because whomever leaks that it happened will end up in gitmo or be Bradley Manning'd. This country has lost its freaking mind since 9/11
- gboudrias 13y ago
  Your (and my) government was never sane, 9/11 was just very good for propaganda.
- mtgx 13y ago
  Not to mention that I'm pretty sure they've been doing stuff like this for many years back since 9/11. It wasn't just this event. They are now saying that they're doing this to protect US against other Boston bombing type incidents and such, but clearly all the surveillance they've done so far hasn't helped that either. So I think the boston bombing is a convenient excuse to become bolder with every such incident, and ignore the Constitution even more.
- nikcub 13y ago
  The zero arrests could be because they are reluctant to reveal that NSA domestic data collection is being used as a source in indictments. The NSA could simply throw up leads which are then investigated by the FBI who would collect evidence to be used in indictments using more traditional means. This would also mean that the legality of NSA data collection isn't tested in courts as submitted evidence. I'd be surprised to learn that they are collecting all this data and aren't finding crimes to investigate and arrest people over. I can imagine that the NSA send all sorts of tips to the FBI to follow up on, but that only the follow up part ever ends up in court filings or as evidence.
  - forgotAgain 13y ago
    What would be real interesting to know is if they find out about any crimes committed by the politicians with responsibility for oversight of the NSA and what they do with that information.
mtgx 13y ago
Tor founder, Jacob Appelbaum, called this guy the most powerful person Earth, probably more powerful than the US president: http://youtu.be/7mnuofn_DXw?t=11m24s http://youtu.be/7mnuofn_DXw?t=11m24s
- snowwrestler 13y ago
  Hyperbolic statements like that are silly, and just make it easy for skeptics to dismiss privacy arguments and their proponents as paranoid kooks.
dragonbonheur 13y ago
The only way for Americans to defeat their government's spying programs is to embed keywords like bomb, jihad, Allah, plus the names of various regions and landmarks and the names of political figures in every communication protocol and program so that the systems become saturated with noise. Only then they will lift their bums from their cozy offices and start doing some legwork and real investigation.
- gcr 13y ago
  As usual, GNU/Emacs has your back! M-x spook http://www.cypherspace.org/rsa/spook.html http://www.cypherspace.org/rsa/spook.html
jurassic 13y ago
> On one flight, he and his aide-de-camp learned "BackTrack," a Linux-based product that helps people test their network security. Aides say the general often scores over 1 million points on the "Bejeweled Blitz" online puzzle game. Either reuters got hacked (for the lulz?) or this is the worst non sequitur I've seen in a long time.
blhack 13y ago
We hear a lot about how behind the rest of the world the US is in regards to cyber security (although maybe those claims are incorrect?) How many of you would go work for the defense department? What would it take for you to do that? Because the smartest people I know wouldn't do it for all of the money in the world. They won't even take defense department grants for our hackerspace (to buy tools, etc.) I really think that the US Justice Department's treatment of "hackers" over the last 20-30 years has completely soiled any possibility that the government has of attracting talent. Maybe I'm wrong, but at least in my bubble, nobody wants to work for the government, and no reasonable amount of money would change their mind.
- cobrausn 13y ago
  Having met quite a few brilliant minds who worked for NASA, Raytheon, and other defense contractors, including a few women who do work like writing missile guidance code, I think your bubble is clouding your view on this one.
  - dclusin 13y ago
    Seconded. Some of the smartest people I had the pleasure of working alongside of in University towards our respective degrees went on to work for either the NSA or one of the various defense contractors.
- brigade 13y ago
  Grow up / go to school in Maryland or Virginia (probably most of Pennsylvania and New England too.) Personal experience suggests that most of the brightest CS/CE/EE/math majors there wind up either in three-letter agencies or (more likely) doing similar work as defense contractors. I probably would have wound up as a defense contractor too, had the companies I applied to not been strict on their GPA requirements (or if I had taken college more seriously...) A large reason is because these defense jobs are among the most interesting jobs in the area, and there's always openings. If your bubble is California, Texas, or New York, I'd imagine there's a significantly wider range of interesting non-defense jobs. Speaking as a programmer, that is.
johngalt 13y ago
See the problems aren't systemic. It's just this one no-name person who was going to retire anyway. We must have just forgotten that he was back there spending billions spying on everyone. No worries he's retired now, so we're all good now. Right american public? Right?

80 points by forgotAgain 13y ago

ape4 13y ago

Well there's Facebook.

Somehow we don't believe you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center

samstave 13y ago

How can we believe that when there is that previous NSA guy who stated that he wrote the algo's that allow this spying to occur? His name is Binny: http://publicintelligence.net/nsa-spies-on-email/ http://publicintelligence.net/nsa-spies-on-email/

smackfu 13y ago

That was from last month.

joshuahedlund 13y ago
I believe the point is that this month's news seems to contradict it: > "The great irony is we're the only ones not spying on the American people," he quipped.

will_brown 13y ago

>"He's lasted as long as he has because he's focused and he's persistent. I've never heard him yell," I beg to differ, it is like J. Edgar Hover, who could not be removed from his post as FBI director simply because he had files on everyone who might attempt such an ill fated move, including Presidents - especially Presidents. Only imagine if J. Edgar Hover also had every electronic communication ever sent or received...scary stuff.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

obviouslygreen 13y ago

I had to try very hard not to (very uncharitably and hopefully incorrectly) assume that this guy could not possibly have the slightest clue what's going on. Shame on me for both ageism and for just dismissing government workers out of hand... ...but... come on. Aides say the general often scores over 1 million points on the "Bejeweled Blitz" online puzzle game. Yes, this came second hand (if it was said at all). No, he did not say it himself, and no, playing games is neither a crime nor a failure of character... but come on, guys that is not the way to promote your boss' image as a highly-educated security expert (which his credentials suggest to at least some extent). Based on the article, I think a very informative perspective could be that of someone who heard him speak at Defcon. Anyone?

jessaustin 13y ago
Skipping Dark Tangent's self-congratulatory intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz0ejKersnM&feature=player_detailpage#t=173s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz0ejKersnM&feature=playe...

nikcub 13y ago

> On one flight, he and his aide-de-camp learned "BackTrack," It only took him one flight to learn to use 40+ apps? Impressive, i've been using some of these apps for ~15 years and still don't know them well. (BackTrack is nothing more than a Linux distro with a bunch of pentest apps - metasploit, nmap, w3af, etc. preinstalled)

charonn0 13y ago
It only took him one flight to learn to use 40+ apps? Impressive True, but this is a guy who: (...) often scores over 1 million points on the "Bejeweled Blitz" online puzzle game. so he's obviously quite 1337.
- nikcub 13y ago
  I can just imagine the pre-briefing with NSA's PR people "we need to establish your tech credentials, what are you really good at" "err, Bejeweled Blitz?"
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- espadrine 13y ago
  Usually, when I brag about scoring a million points at a game, you should infer I'm proud to have hacked it. I'm not patient enough to earn all those points. When reading this line, I genuinely assumed they meant he hacked the app. Isn't that the case?
anigbrowl 13y ago
Don't apply legal standards of textual analysis to a news wire article; it only results in distraction. It's certainly reasonable to develop basic familiarity with a software suite during a plane flight.

ck2 13y ago

Here's the thing - all this and they've announced ZERO arrests. Whatever the heck they are doing, they are spending a fortune, eroding everyone's privacy forever, and accomplishing nothing. Can't wait for a few years when they get hacked and a foreign government steals all the data. Of course we will never know because whomever leaks that it happened will end up in gitmo or be Bradley Manning'd. This country has lost its freaking mind since 9/11

gboudrias 13y ago
Your (and my) government was never sane, 9/11 was just very good for propaganda.
mtgx 13y ago
Not to mention that I'm pretty sure they've been doing stuff like this for many years back since 9/11. It wasn't just this event. They are now saying that they're doing this to protect US against other Boston bombing type incidents and such, but clearly all the surveillance they've done so far hasn't helped that either. So I think the boston bombing is a convenient excuse to become bolder with every such incident, and ignore the Constitution even more.
nikcub 13y ago
The zero arrests could be because they are reluctant to reveal that NSA domestic data collection is being used as a source in indictments. The NSA could simply throw up leads which are then investigated by the FBI who would collect evidence to be used in indictments using more traditional means. This would also mean that the legality of NSA data collection isn't tested in courts as submitted evidence. I'd be surprised to learn that they are collecting all this data and aren't finding crimes to investigate and arrest people over. I can imagine that the NSA send all sorts of tips to the FBI to follow up on, but that only the follow up part ever ends up in court filings or as evidence.
- forgotAgain 13y ago
  What would be real interesting to know is if they find out about any crimes committed by the politicians with responsibility for oversight of the NSA and what they do with that information.

mtgx 13y ago

Tor founder, Jacob Appelbaum, called this guy the most powerful person Earth, probably more powerful than the US president: http://youtu.be/7mnuofn_DXw?t=11m24s http://youtu.be/7mnuofn_DXw?t=11m24s

snowwrestler 13y ago
Hyperbolic statements like that are silly, and just make it easy for skeptics to dismiss privacy arguments and their proponents as paranoid kooks.

dragonbonheur 13y ago

The only way for Americans to defeat their government's spying programs is to embed keywords like bomb, jihad, Allah, plus the names of various regions and landmarks and the names of political figures in every communication protocol and program so that the systems become saturated with noise. Only then they will lift their bums from their cozy offices and start doing some legwork and real investigation.

gcr 13y ago
As usual, GNU/Emacs has your back! M-x spook http://www.cypherspace.org/rsa/spook.html http://www.cypherspace.org/rsa/spook.html

jurassic 13y ago

> On one flight, he and his aide-de-camp learned "BackTrack," a Linux-based product that helps people test their network security. Aides say the general often scores over 1 million points on the "Bejeweled Blitz" online puzzle game. Either reuters got hacked (for the lulz?) or this is the worst non sequitur I've seen in a long time.

blhack 13y ago

We hear a lot about how behind the rest of the world the US is in regards to cyber security (although maybe those claims are incorrect?) How many of you would go work for the defense department? What would it take for you to do that? Because the smartest people I know wouldn't do it for all of the money in the world. They won't even take defense department grants for our hackerspace (to buy tools, etc.) I really think that the US Justice Department's treatment of "hackers" over the last 20-30 years has completely soiled any possibility that the government has of attracting talent. Maybe I'm wrong, but at least in my bubble, nobody wants to work for the government, and no reasonable amount of money would change their mind.

cobrausn 13y ago
Having met quite a few brilliant minds who worked for NASA, Raytheon, and other defense contractors, including a few women who do work like writing missile guidance code, I think your bubble is clouding your view on this one.
- dclusin 13y ago
  Seconded. Some of the smartest people I had the pleasure of working alongside of in University towards our respective degrees went on to work for either the NSA or one of the various defense contractors.
brigade 13y ago
Grow up / go to school in Maryland or Virginia (probably most of Pennsylvania and New England too.) Personal experience suggests that most of the brightest CS/CE/EE/math majors there wind up either in three-letter agencies or (more likely) doing similar work as defense contractors. I probably would have wound up as a defense contractor too, had the companies I applied to not been strict on their GPA requirements (or if I had taken college more seriously...) A large reason is because these defense jobs are among the most interesting jobs in the area, and there's always openings. If your bubble is California, Texas, or New York, I'd imagine there's a significantly wider range of interesting non-defense jobs. Speaking as a programmer, that is.

johngalt 13y ago

See the problems aren't systemic. It's just this one no-name person who was going to retire anyway. We must have just forgotten that he was back there spending billions spying on everyone. No worries he's retired now, so we're all good now. Right american public? Right?