NSA data collection/analysis and justifcation methods.

[RickM]

Worth one hour of your time regardless of your politics.

[burgess1108]

Anyone remember when we abhorred the USSR's KGB surveillance of their own people and thumped our chest that that would never happen here?

[treadonme]

check the dates in the slides jacob's talking from.
2008, in production.

Very real: All ur base are belong to us.

[SteveP]

my nsa administrator gives me tech advice..
" dont buy windows 8 until at least 3rd update"
" dont click on the email attachment from someone who you havent heard from in 2 years.."
lotta helpful stuff.

the spectacular thing about all this is:
they may have terabytes of meaningless ( or possibly meaningful ) data but they have no idea what info snowden has still.

heads should roll.

[EricKeller]

we were all in a panic when the Patriot Act was passed and just let it happen without protest. The NSA has been there for 10 years now, and it was just ignored all that time because nobody pays attention. This is what needs to change. From what I have seen, very few people are concerned about it now. It would change if that wasn't the case. The issue is somewhere between learned helplessness and watching too many episodes of 24 and thinking it's all necessary.

as always, there is an xkcd for this post
http://xkcd.com/1013/

[lukasz]

I've always assumed that any data I put on the internet or on a computer connected to the internet is reachable by agencies like the NSA. What I'm most shocked about is that people are shocked: "wow you mean people other than me can access my gmail?!" I mean... come onnnnnn. The Patriot Act was a big deal because it legalized it.

[vertical_doug]

my nsa administrator gives me tech advice..
" dont buy windows 8 until at least 3rd update"
" dont click on the email attachment from someone who you havent heard from in 2 years.."
lotta helpful stuff.

the spectacular thing about all this is:
they may have terabytes of meaningless ( or possibly meaningful ) data but they have no idea what info snowden has still.

heads should roll.

Rule one- when in doubt about security breach, flood the space with dis-information.

Conclusion: They know what information Snowden has. It is dated and not that damaging. They may have terabytes of meaningless (or possibly meaningful) data. Which is what they'd like you to think.

Snowden doesn't have the good stuff, otherwise, they'd be worried and trying harder to get him back.

If you think about it logically. Snowden was a dumb one. Imagine what the smart ones thinking this stuff up are doing or capable of.
Yeah, you should worry.

[burgess1108]

I'm not part of the tinfoil hat brigade, but in hindsight, 9/11 sent us off the rails. As was mentioned, we allowed anything and everything because it was "patriotic" and was going to "preserve freedom" and if you weren't on board, well, you must love al qaeda. But it was ok, all that stuff was happening over "there."

So what does DHS need with 1.6 billion rounds?

[Bobonli]

Snowden doesn't have the good stuff, otherwise, they'd be worried and trying harder to get him back.

I'll go one step further. If he had anything that really compromised the NSA's "program," he would have just disappeared or accidentally stepped in front of a train.

For decades, Americans have taken their liberty and freedom for granted and turned a blind eye to how it was maintained. For the moment, we're outraged about this but this too shall pass. I'm sure the government is already onto the "next best thing" in spying (on us).

[EricKeller]

If you think about it logically. Snowden was a dumb one. Imagine what the smart ones thinking this stuff up are doing or capable of.
Yeah, you should worry.

Snowden talked a batch of people out of their passwords so he could rifle through their files. Not sure he's the dumb one. I'm sure there are organizations at the NSA that are full of smart people. Then the management team hands out a batch of contracts because they have the money. This is the real scandal in my mind, we don't really have control over these companies that are being let into our telecommunications systems.

[Mike Mcdermid]

Worth one hour of your time regardless of your politics.

That meta data example..i think know who that was ..though i most certainly was not on the golden gate bridge

[omnigrid]

Worth one hour of your time regardless of your politics.

I personally have no problem with digital data analysis, as pervasive as it is. If you think the internet and 10101s are anything but a virtual reality, then you've lost your grip on life.

No one really cares about private companies storing personal information in the first place -- heck, we're all quite enthusiastic to hand it over to use their internet services.

I am not so concerned until LEO, whoever actually unreasonably search my property and person. And if I were to take online privacy seriously, I sure as hell wouldn't be virtually-active in this layer of the net. I'd be fully embedded in the darkweb and only use burners. But who is going to do that? No thanks.

Just be smart about your online life and pay better attention if this whole NSA thing is news to you.

Controversial opinion, but thats my line of thought.

[Moke]

Stay off the phone, don't use a computer, pay for everything with money, stay away from towns cause you are on a monitor at least a hundred times a day. I never dreamed it would happen like in the si fi books of my youth, but I think it is way past the "Big Brother" concept. (not the TV show kids, look it up) Twenty years ago if someone mentioned that they were going to put this little device on you that others could track your every movement and conversation ( you wouldn't have known about your texting habits back then). There would have been a riot going on. Now people pay a $100 bucks a month for the privilege of having one. Crazytown but it is here to stay.

[Cookietruck]

Stay off the phone, don't use a computer, pay for everything with money, stay away from towns cause you are on a monitor at least a hundred times a day. I never dreamed it would happen like in the si fi books of my youth, but I think it is way past the "Big Brother" concept. (not the TV show kids, look it up) Twenty years ago if someone mentioned that they were going to put this little device on you that others could track your every movement and conversation ( you wouldn't have known about your texting habits back then). There would have been a riot going on. Now people pay a $100 bucks a month for the privilege of having one. Crazytown but it is here to stay.

yeah pretty much this
the email is whatever, its pretty obvious that is easily monitored
but the cell phones, you have a gps tracking device in your pocket all the time. for the last few years i've been noticing how suspects get linked to serious crimes because they didn't turn off their cell phones. the LEO can do cell phone tower dumps to find people, the nsa is probably monitoring every phone in the USA or most likely an even broader range.
it'll get interesting when the drones start flying. perhaps we'll be like china soon, the gov't will have cameras everywhere, face recognition all over, will probably be in the air.
i'm not some consiracy theorist weirdo, but this all seems pretty likely, especially if you've read about other stuff the gov't has done since the 50's and what the NSA has been doing the last 10yrs or so.

the best part about the snowden thing is, first he exposed the NSA and the NSA got hammered a little by congress, the NSA says, oh we don't do this or that then the journalist releases more info from snowden proving that the NSA does in fact do this and that and the NSA has no problems lying to congress to maintain the power they've already been secretly granted...
at this point there are no checks and balances for the NSA, they can do anything they want.

[Cookietruck]

wonder how this will go
Obama considering stripping NSA's power to store phone records - CBS News

[xjoex]

I have worked extensively with Federal LEO and government agencies while a researcher at an FFRDC. I know that groups like the FBI, USSS, etc have to jump through huge hoops to get cell phone tower records. To get content of a call or email, or even a full packet is a huge pain.

The most common method is called a pen register, which is the first 68 bytes of every packet or NetFlow/IPFIX can be used. What this does is tell them what ips, bytes, packets, flags, start/end times, a few more things. But not content.

To get content (called a T3) you essentially have to be 95% sure the person/connection you are monitoring is guilty. This will take many lawyers and a judges approval.

That said when you go to the NSA or our if you want to look at a government network it all goes out the window.

But say what you want about the USA, I was doing an incident response class for an ex soviet country's police force. When I was showing them the method for data collection to get who they were contacting(you want the drug dealers supplier, not just the dealer). Without any irony they said "Why would we do that, we'll just put them in hand cuffs and not feed them for a week. They will tell us anything we want."

-Joe

[lukasz]

wonder how this will go
Obama considering stripping NSA's power to store phone records - CBS News

Political damage control, and I bet they have already moved on to something better.

[dgaddis]

...the gov't will have cameras everywhere, face recognition all over,...

Facebook already has facial recognition. It started a few months ago, when you go to tag someone in a picture FB make a recomendation, before you start typing a name or anything. 9 times out of 10, it's right too.

[RickM]

I personally have no problem with digital data analysis, as pervasive as it is. If you think the internet and 10101s are anything but a virtual reality, then you've lost your grip on life.

No one really cares about private companies storing personal information in the first place -- heck, we're all quite enthusiastic to hand it over to use their internet services.

I am not so concerned until LEO, whoever actually unreasonably search my property and person. And if I were to take online privacy seriously, I sure as hell wouldn't be virtually-active in this layer of the net. I'd be fully embedded in the darkweb and only use burners. But who is going to do that? No thanks.

Just be smart about your online life and pay better attention if this whole NSA thing is news to you.

Controversial opinion, but thats my line of thought.

What is controversial about your opinion, do you think?

[omnigrid]

also, I say get used to it. things will be getting very weird in the years ahead whether we like it or not. mind-internet infaces, AI, etc.

brace yourselves.