
General Alexander wearing EFF shirt - FredericJ
https://twitter.com/EFF/status/346011010819305472/photo/1
======
user24
Context:

"Nicole Smith, an associate attorney at Tully Rinckey PLLC in Washington,
D.C., and a former security clearance investigator"[1]

"In a photograph posted online after Snowden revealed himself, his laptop
displays a sticker touting the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a longstanding
advocate for online rights and staunch opponent of government surveillance.
That would have been enough of a warning sign to make it into his file, Smith
says"[1]

And the EFF respond by showing a picture of the director of the NSA wearing an
EFF T-Shirt.

[1] [http://nation.time.com/2013/06/15/potential-blind-spots-
in-c...](http://nation.time.com/2013/06/15/potential-blind-spots-in-clearance-
process-that-gave-snowden-top-secret-access/)

~~~
Taylorious
More Context: It looks like he was wearing it at devcon to help recruit
hackers. I wonder how that worked out for him.

[http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/27/technology/defcon-
nsa/index....](http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/27/technology/defcon-
nsa/index.htm)

~~~
coderdude
Two things from the article that I want to comment on:

>>"In this room, this room right here, is the talent our nation needs to
secure cyberspace," Alexander told the standing-room-only audience at DefCon,
a grassroots gathering in Las Vegas expected to draw a record 16,000 attendees
this year. "We need great talent. We don't pay as high as everybody else, but
we're fun to be around."

There was an EFF talk at Defcon a long while back where they told us about how
the RIAA was recruiting talented hackers to join their ranks. Their warning
was that the RIAA wasn't just a bunch of goons. They were hiring among us and
we should be more careful about covering our assets. Not completely related
but possibly relevant.

>>Alexander's appearance is a milestone for DefCon, a hacker mecca with an
often-uneasy relationship with the feds.

It's not quite as serious as they're describing. With the "Spot the Fed" game
being the most obvious nod that there isn't a real uneasiness but rather the
rebellious "us vs. them" feeling of hackers vs. government. All very friendly
though. I'd imagine most people thought it was neat to be in the same room as
the NSA Director.

~~~
mentat
Doesn't hurt that most of the organizers work for the DoD now...

------
tptacek
The context here is a Time Magazine piece by Andrew Katz suggesting that the
EFF sticker on Snowden's laptop should have been a warning sign to Booz Allen,
and should have been recorded in his personnel file.

Nobody at NSA (or anywhere else in the Executive branch) has cast public
aspersions on EFF, at least that I know of.

------
jdangu
appropriate plug:

Get your T-shirt or sticker at
[https://supporters.eff.org/shop](https://supporters.eff.org/shop)

------
dfc
Someone here on HN thought the tor stickers on Snowden's laptop was a reason
to believe in tor's security:

 _" Snowden had Tor stickers on his laptop, that sort of lends credence to the
fact that NSA doesn't have it down yet on how to id Tor users and it is still
a good and reliable anonymity tool."_
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5880474](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5880474)

------
cschmidt
That's from when General Alexander gave a speech at DefCon last year.

[http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57481689-83/nsa-director-
fi...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57481689-83/nsa-director-finally-
greets-defcon-hackers/)

------
andor
He's also wearing a Casio F-91W on that picture ;-)

~~~
dhx
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F91W#Claimed_use_in_terr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F91W#Claimed_use_in_terrorism)

------
anologwintermut
Almost as bad as George Lucas in a Han Short First t-shirt with Harrison
Ford[1]

[1][http://tshirtwebsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/han-
shi...](http://tshirtwebsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/han-shit-
first.jpg)

------
ferdo
The NSA throwing suspicion on EFF, perhaps. Or flashing colors of an NSA
honeypot. Or he's just fucking with all of us. Maybe he just likes the shirt.

------
jiggy2011
Why is a dude wearing a shirt on the front page?

~~~
IBCNU
Probably because he's the most powerful person on the planet wearing a t-shirt
which signals that he stands for the very value's most assume he disregards?

~~~
jiggy2011
Most powerful guy on the planet? I hadn't heard of him until now.

~~~
throwaway10001
_Most powerful guy on the planet? I hadn 't heard of him until now._

He's probably heard of you and that's the real power. He may have to do a few
searches but he definitely knows more about you than you know about about
yourself (you can forget what you said, how you felt or what did--the computer
does not)

~~~
jiggy2011
He is still subservient to the government. And really you would only know the
most mundane stuff about me by seeing my google searches.

~~~
alexqgb
Dude, he IS the government.

~~~
jiggy2011
No, he's an employee.

~~~
CamperBob2
In the sense that J. Edgar Hoover was an "employee," perhaps.

------
volume
Let's tone down the criticism. the NSA can be hipsters too right?

------
astangl
Poser.

