5 ms·
Is the NSA Using Backblaze Storage Pods for PRISM Surveillance Data?
- RossM 13y ago> When SGI bought super-computer maker Cray in 1996, our CTO who worked there at > the time said the running joke was, "SGI sold no units this quarter, but made > a healthy profit." That wasn’t magic accounting. It was the NSA requiring > purchases not be disclosed. Love this quote; when this kind of thing happens does it prove for some difficult finances/auditing? Can you even report the units sold (SKUs, quantities)?
- stox 13y agoThere are/were Supercomputer manufacturers that you have never heard of because their sole clients are the NSA and/or DOD. It has been a joke, in Supercomputing circles for some time, that the real top 10 machines are missing from the top 500 list for this very reason.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- MetaCosm 13y agoI believe with the onset of better programmed accounting packages, now most money that flows from {{3letteragencies}} to companies goes via cursory legit looking shell companies.
- ancarda 13y agoAre those calculations taking in a healthy amount of redundancy? BlackBlaze Storage Pods were designed without any redundancy as it's done purely in software by the company. They just let the hardware fail and replace the drives. The data is then copied from a near-by, healthy pod. I'm sure the NSA has redundancy in their design but I wonder to what extent. Are there off-site backups? Could a physical disaster cause them to lose most or all of their data?
- liotier 13y agoBackblaze knows how to milk an entirely unrelated event for attracting attention on themselves !