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There's evidence that US government counter-intelligence and information security are very poor: Snowden, Manning, the recent break-in at OPM, etc. In past gene
by hackuser 11y ago
There's evidence that US government counter-intelligence and information security are very poor: Snowden, Manning, the recent break-in at OPM, etc. In past generations, nuclear plans were stolen, the heads of both FBI and CIA counter-intelligence have been moles, a Navy sailor kept the Soviets updated on the locations of US submarines, etc. Here's a list I came across recently:
http://www.wearethemighty.com/american-spies-military-secrets-2015-06 http://www.wearethemighty.com/american-spies-military-secret...
It's hard to know how bad or good the US's security is, because most intelligence operations are secret and I don't know enough about the field to have a standard by which to judge it. Maybe these things are the norm for most governments.
I would not be surprised if other governments already knew much of what Snowden made public. Some secrecy clearly is necessary for governments but how often does "secret" merely mean "unknown to the public" (but already known to enemies)?
- x5n1 11y ago> information security are very poor this is necessarily the case. people are the biggest flaw followed by technology itself which is expected to be cheap and easy.
- walshemj 11y agoThe heads of the FBI/CIA I know they both had senior officers go bad but do you have any proof of this?
- hackuser 11y agoJust to be clear, it wasn't the heads of the whole FBI and CIA; it was the heads of their counterintelligence divisions (or maybe their Soviet counterintelligence divisions - I don't know the org charts precisely), Aldrich Ames (CIA) and Robert Hanssen (FBI). Just do a search; there were arrests, trials, etc. - it is very well documented.
- jnbiche 11y agoWhy is secrecy clearly necessary for governments? You may be right, but it's far from clear.
- Retra 11y agoWell, it offers a huge military advantage, so in the interests of waging war, it is very useful, if not necessary. But I think the most common use of it is probably the fact that politics is a game of hypocrisy, and you can't play unfairly if you don't get to keep secrets.