

Is the NSA on Hacker News? - dangero

We know that in the past the NSA has embedded themselves into technology communities and also that they have attempted to sway public opinion. Since Hacker News is a large technical community where opinions are created and discussed about relevant topics, would that not suggest that the NSA probably has agents monitoring and commenting on threads?<p>What got me thinking about it was this thread:
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=6881380<p>If rand_s is flawed, then most every communication online could be read even if encrypted since most client machines use Windows. I don&#x27;t mind if people disagree with my ideas, but the thread was full of hand waving dismissals. Where was the typical Hacker News paranoia? We know Microsoft has let the NSA install Windows back doors in the past. We also know that an audit of the Windows 2000 version of rand_s found major flaws. Not one shred of evidence was presented to challenge my concern. I&#x27;m not suggesting that everyone in that thread is an NSA agent, but rather that I would be naive to think that there are not NSA agents attempting to sway opinion on this site in general. If you were the NSA would you not do the same? Thoughts?
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brudgers
Swaying opinion is not what the NSA does. It does signals intelligence, and
propaganda production is the purview of other organs.

Going further, I doubt it does much with HN other than tracking use. HN is
text and accessible directly from the web and tends toward stable content.
There's nothing upon which to construct a potential conspiracy and thus
justify an operation.

~~~
dangero
Given the recent Snowden leaks about the NSA collecting information to
discredit "radicalizers" that is pretty funny. The NSA very clearly was
holding information that they did not want getting out such as back doors in
encryption chips. Why would you believe that they would not monitor and
anonymously involve themselves in conversations happening around the web by
people who may have been close to discovering their back doors?

[http://warincontext.org/2013/11/27/top-secret-document-
revea...](http://warincontext.org/2013/11/27/top-secret-document-reveals-nsa-
propaganda-operations-designed-to-discredit-radicalizers/)

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runjake
_> Is NSA on Hacker News?_

Yes. CNE (computer network exploitation) and information warfare (formerly
cryptology) people. They're into the same stuff as the rest of us, of course.

 _> I would be naive to think that there are not NSA agents attempting to sway
opinion on this site in general._

I dunno. The NSA folks I'm aware of are just geeks looking for news and
discussion, the same as everyone else.

What you were talking about I believe would fall under "psychological
operations" and I do not believe that is a mission goal of NSA/CSS.

Disclaimer: I am not NSA, nor associated with the government currently :)

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visakanv
You've caught us, dangero.

Hacker News IS the NSA.

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dangero
Why the snark? Is it not a legitimate question?

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visakanv
Okay, you got me. I'm actually an NSA agent trying to pursuade you that Hacker
News ISN'T the NSA.

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w_t_payne
I think these guys probably have better things to do, and suggesting that they
would spend any significant effort on this forum is egotism and hubris of the
worst sort.

Of course, you can never rule anything out in it's entirety ...

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ddp
...better things to do? You mean, like playing World of Warcraft?

~~~
gault8121
Yeah seriously, if the NSA sent a team of agents into WoW and Second Life it'd
be absurd to think that they wouldn't monitor HN.

[http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/09/nsa-spying-world-of-
warcraf...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/09/nsa-spying-world-of-warcraft-
xbox-live/)

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kr4
There's only one way you can find out whether or not an hn'er is from NSA and
that is ... you also need to be from NSA.

~~~
dangero
That's a good point and the other side of the coin is that it seems very
likely there are people on HN that work for the NSA and just read HN in their
free time for fun.

