
Why the NSA Dump Isn't from an Insider - mattingly23
https://medium.com/@thegrugq/completely-wrong-a300246ad316#.v112fv666
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intherdfield
Would the NSA prefer to have these dumps be vaguely attributed to an insider?

I wonder if they would because any mistake in handling data calls into
question their competence which calls into question their ability to keep that
big database safe. The one with all our call records, etc.

~~~
Bartweiss
There are plenty of reasons they might.

The (mainstream) Snowden narrative was one of disgruntled employees and
treason. The _contents_ of the leak drove some muttering about NSA regulation,
but the _nature_ of the leak didn't. It just led to a lot of calls for
"internal whistleblowing", which has been repeatedly proved useless.

Enemy action, by contrast, doesn't support a focus on the attacker. Nobody
expects Russia to play nice, and nobody can realistically suggest
'discouraging' state powers from hacking and leaking. The tools _will_ be
misused (from a US government viewpoint) since the new owner has US-unaligned
goals. The only barrier left is security, which appears to have failed.

If insiders leak details, then it's just a conversation about what the NSA
does with its tools. If foreign powers get those details, then the "reveal and
patch" crowd is bolstered by the knowledge that outsiders are using the same
tools.

~~~
logicallee
>Nobody expects Russia to play nice,

I do! I expect Russia, China, the US, the UK, Australia, and even places like
the Middle East to play nice when it comes to their Intel services.

Why? Because I expect them to be staffed by exactly (precisely) people like
you and me and the people reading this forum, and I believe there is an
incentive for the intelligentsia to completely ignore all political things and
simply be awesome stewards of a safe world. In fact, I think that there should
be a secret conspiracy by every single intel worker worldwide to band together
online in a meta-community. I think they should state in this very forum (HN)
if they are being asked to do evil - such as in reply to this comment -
because they're part of this meta-conspiracy.

I don't think this is hopelessly naive because I can say with certitude that
there are people reading this from intelligence agencies all over the world.
Why wouldn't they?

I expect this to be viciously downvoted and I don't care. I think I'm on the
right side of history and I think that the people who expect these geeks to
wage war on each other are on the wrong side of world history.

It's very black and white. (The reach and extent of the activities of these
respective services is a different matter entirely and not a subject of this
comment.)

~~~
saint_fiasco
Many physicists didn't want to work on nuclear bombs but they were convinced
to help develop it because they were afraid other scientists with even less
ethics would build one first. It only takes one Leo Szilard to ruin it for the
whole human race.

~~~
anexprogrammer
I'm reminded of Einstein wanting 1,000 copies of the famous Hiroshima
edition[1] of the New Yorker (70 years ago this week) to send to colleagues.

[1]
[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima)

~~~
lostlogin
That story is an excellent read - first hand accounts of the Hiroshima
bombing. I'd forgotten the article existed - I seem to remember it being
released for free in the last year or so? Thanks.

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ironSkillet
_Puts on tinfoil hat_

I'm a little naive when it comes to this sort of tech, but does anybody else
wonder if this leak could be a notice from the Russians that they do, in fact,
have all of Hillary's emails?

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SadWebDeveloper
Lots of people are talking like it's a political move, insiders, super team
hackers... but imho this is just to level up the game. Pretty sure that this
tools are know to the NSA to be leaked and probably saw a small guy using this
therefore they release the stash of the most "shared" tools to the general
public via this charade and the small players start again from zero and the
big league players (equation group) can dominate the the field again with his
0-days.

~~~
ryanlol
Have you seen anything to support this theory or are you just practicing your
creative writing?

~~~
losteverything
I am going to steal this creative writing line and add it to my other
favorites

Don't meet trouble halfway.

You are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts

There are two kinds of problems: yours and mine and this is not mine

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rdtsc
> No team of “hackers” would want to piss off Equation Group this much. That’s
> the kind of cojones that only come from having a nation state protecting you

I like that part. Yes, don't make the middle aged dads from Fort Mead angry.

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EthanHeilman
Would Lulsec in its prime have been willing to piss off the equation group? To
me the answer is clearly yes.

~~~
mattnewton
Yeah, not only would they be willing but it practically be what they existed
for. I think your typical black hat has very different weights on risk and
reward for these sorts of things than your typical software engineer; hence
why they went the life path they did.

~~~
EthanHeilman
...and your typical blackhat is not Lulzsec. I suspect that the media-hungry
blackhats are the tip of the iceberg. No surer way to getting a taskforce
assigned to finding you than doing high-profile media stunts (ask DPR), most
hackers don't want this, but some clearly do.

