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Edit: Just saw the portion markings (the stuff on the slides that says their classification level), and I'm going to change my judgement to "this was pretty cl

by olympus 13y ago

Edit: Just saw the portion markings (the stuff on the slides that says their classification level), and I'm going to change my judgement to "this was pretty classified." And whoever released these slides to the public is going to jail for violating the NDA they signed. Jail for quite a few years for knowingly revealing TS information. I'll leave my previous comment below so you won't think I erased anything. My problem is how they portray this. Direct from the article: "The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, " and also: "The technology companies, which participate knowingly in PRISM operations, include most of the dominant global players of Silicon Valley." If you have numerous (non-government contractor type) companies knowingly participating in the program, then it isn't "highly classified." And if you thought that your communications were private then you were fooling yourself. Even Tor, the darling of the EFF, was initially developed by the Navy. It's very tough for people to communicate electronically these days without the government being able to listen in.

AnthonyMouse 13y ago
>Even Tor, the darling of the EFF, was initially developed by the Navy. Tor is open source. Are you suggesting there is some secret backdoor inserted by the Navy which is not apparent in the public code?
- olympus 13y ago
  No, I was suggesting that the government has touched things that many people don't realize. There might not be an explicit backdoor in the code, but it's quite possible there is a vulnerability that the government can exploit. I'm not saying that there is, but if there was it wouldn't be publicized and they'd be milking it for all it was worth before someone else discovers the hole and fixes it.
ISL 13y ago
Perhaps whomever leaked it regarded it as essential to upholding an oath of office. 'preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.... '
- olympus 13y ago
  That could certainly be the case. The only two plausible reasons for leaking classified information are moral convictions or personal gain (selling it to the news or a foreign country). Edit: Maybe three reasons. Blackmail/extortion is a possibility that doesn't quite fall into the personal gain category. However noble the intention, it doesn't change the fact that everyone who has access to that information has signed an NDA and been through a security indoctrination (indoc used without the negative connotation in this case). They knew exactly what the punishment is for what they did. The jury that would nullify that would be a rare find in the US. It's basically zero probability if it was a military member subject to the UCMJ.

by olympus 13y ago

AnthonyMouse 13y ago

>Even Tor, the darling of the EFF, was initially developed by the Navy. Tor is open source. Are you suggesting there is some secret backdoor inserted by the Navy which is not apparent in the public code?

olympus 13y ago
No, I was suggesting that the government has touched things that many people don't realize. There might not be an explicit backdoor in the code, but it's quite possible there is a vulnerability that the government can exploit. I'm not saying that there is, but if there was it wouldn't be publicized and they'd be milking it for all it was worth before someone else discovers the hole and fixes it.

ISL 13y ago

Perhaps whomever leaked it regarded it as essential to upholding an oath of office. 'preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.... '

olympus 13y ago
That could certainly be the case. The only two plausible reasons for leaking classified information are moral convictions or personal gain (selling it to the news or a foreign country). Edit: Maybe three reasons. Blackmail/extortion is a possibility that doesn't quite fall into the personal gain category. However noble the intention, it doesn't change the fact that everyone who has access to that information has signed an NDA and been through a security indoctrination (indoc used without the negative connotation in this case). They knew exactly what the punishment is for what they did. The jury that would nullify that would be a rare find in the US. It's basically zero probability if it was a military member subject to the UCMJ.