NSA's Response To Snowden Leaks Isn't To Stop Spying, But To Make It More Difficult To Blow The Whistle
from the wrong-lesson dept
In response to the revelations, via Ed Snowden, that the NSA's surveillance apparatus is sweeping up a lot more information on the public than most people realized, you might think that the proper response would be to stop collecting so much information. But, of course, the NSA's actual response is to try to make it more difficult for the next Ed Snowden to leak information by instituting a "two-person rule" for accessing information.The director of the N.S.A., Gen. Keith B. Alexander, acknowledged the problem in a television interview on Sunday and said his agency would institute “a two-man rule” that would limit the ability of each of its 1,000 system administrators to gain unfettered access to the entire system. The rule, which would require a second check on each attempt to access sensitive information, is already in place in some intelligence agencies. It is a concept borrowed from the field of cryptography, where, in effect, two sets of keys are required to unlock a safe.Basically: we won't fix the actual problem, we'll just makes sure it's much more difficult for the next whistleblower to expose us. That's not particularly comforting.
From government agencies to corporate America, there is a renewed emphasis on thwarting the rogue I.T. employee. Such in-house breaches are relatively rare, but the N.S.A. leaks have prompted assessments of the best precautions businesses and government can take, from added checks and balances to increased scrutiny during hiring.
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Filed Under: ed snowden, nsa, two person rule, whistleblowing
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No worries, though. The policy will just be updated for a three-person rule.
Has Anonymous taught these idiots nothing?
If the NSA has anything to worry about now, it's screening potential employees whose job it is to monitor what the NSA is doing behind closed doors.
And breach accordingly.
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> enough to not leak their documents, but
> disrespectful enough to spy on everyone else.
Really? Gathering intelligence on other nations hostile to the U.S. is now 'disrespectful'?
For fuck's sake...
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No, the massive spying on US citizens is. Although I wouldn't have used the word "disrespectful". I'd have said it was "unamerican".
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Except they're not, not exclusively anyway. They're spying on all communications within our country. Clearly the government is ultra-paranoid and thinks of us as the enemy. The NSA has to find people without honor or respect for their fellow countrymen to willfully violate our rights.
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us empire
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Rotation
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Caring about security sounds like a good idea for a secret service. Wonder who got that idea? Must be a professor or somn.
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They don't see the same problem
So they're being held accountable not for their actions, but for their secrecy.
They have to keep better secrets if they want to continue doing their job - so that is why they're increasing security - that's their job.
It's rather pathetic, but clearly it shows where our government's priorities are.
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This *does* mitigate one data-misuse scenario...
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Re: This *does* mitigate one data-misuse scenario...
Likely what'll happen is that they'll unlock it, and walk away leaving it in the same situation with the annoyance of having to get someone else to open half of the lock every day.
/shrug
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Somehow the meaning of the article didn't change.
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Snowden did more than "blow the whistle"
Characterizing Snowden as a whistleblower at this point is like characterizing Hurricane Katrina as a rainy day.
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Re: Snowden did more than "blow the whistle"
Well, it does help the public know which servers to avoid. That's a benefit. This sort of stuff can be very useful for the public to know. Also, it might not, in which case it's collateral damage. The US government deems similar collateral damage acceptable when it comes to spying on us. Fair's fair.
Not even close. It's to declare that they way covert operations are currently being done is unacceptable.
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Re: Snowden did more than "blow the whistle"
"i'm an authoritarian and i just pee'ed my panties already bunched up my bunghole..."
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Re: Snowden did more than "blow the whistle"
Accurate enough, certainly based on the evolving scope of what this particular whistle-blower brought with him.
However consider this.
You seem to be making the case that Snowden may be a traitor or a criminal because he scooped up a whole bunch of sensitive *international spying activity logs as well as domestic.
There's a problem with that conjecture when measured.
First of all, there's now no doubt the NSA was spying illegally (at least illegal based on published, non-secret laws) on Americans.
This activity runs into direct conflict with one of our core "enshrined" amendments... you know the ones that, by law, aren't supposed to be superceded by subsequent laws.
A government wantonly breaking its own laws represents a manifest betrayal of trust with the people it is bound to serve. I would say that universally violating the 4th amendment rights of every American could be called a 'wanton' act.
A patriot (and I mean a true patriot, not John McCain or a missile program) stands by his countrymen first, then their lawful government. History informs us the patriot must look first to holding his own government to task in order to serve his people.
Having discovered NSA's transgressions against their own people, but not knowing what else may be going on, a patriot would have no choice but to cast the entire operation under suspicion.
After all, knowing what they are doing to their own people... just what are the NSA people doing to humans around the world?
A true patriot does not crave bloodshed, and would not let unscrupulous people lead his countrymen to war.
The NSA is now suspect for blatantly violating our laws and needs to go under the microscope for our national security. The rest of the government is suspect for supporting them.
Time to open the windows, folks, and play in the light.
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Insider breach is not rare
No, it's not. In fact, it's the most common type, that is, for everyday IT organizations. Why would the NSA be any different?
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Sysadmins
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I think you're assuming the admin knows no more than the 'standard' admin. It's a fine line and a short walk between system admin level access and read access to any reachable object. Sure you can partition the system, trigger alarms and make things generally harder, but there is nothing that cannot be broken with access to "the machine".
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Really sensitive information is being stored in an encrypted form, I assume. If that's not true, then the system has a security problem that goes beyond sysadmin access.
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Having access to the decryption system doesn't mean that he has the ability to decrypt sensitive materials. He'd need the encryption key for those materials to do that.
For admin purposes, the testing can be adequately accomplished by the admin encrypting and decrypting files that he's supplied himself.
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Yeah, showing them that you can decrypt hypothetical files with the same system is really going to make them feel better.
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However, if there's some PHB who doesn't understand that, then the PHB can certainly give the sysadmin the necessary credentials for the specific data there's a problem with. There's still no need for the sysadmin to have blanket access.
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Feynman effect
I guess there is something peculiar about a government agent's mentality which makes those people defy common sense.
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Hasn't the NSA seen the movie
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How?
Oh the people who set it up and administer it.
You mean the system administrators that the system is supposed to block?
Yes!
So you are going to have the guys that you want to limit install the locks?
Yes!
That will work out great. ;-)
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There are but nine.
While so many of you search for the TRUTH?
The answer you seek, is already provided you.
1 of 9
P.s, it's not Scotus
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