SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives. http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN0LK1QV20150216?sp=true Sneaky little devils
Dude there are built in features in the source code of basically every major manufacturer of desktops, cells phones, tablets, routers, etc. These features allow them to spy and remotely use the desktop to view whatever they wish, or to find their way into the root of a linux system, such as any cell phone or mac. There are ways around it but it is such a hassle that I do not even bother, that is how deep it is in most systems. Windows event log reporting of errors basically goes right to the NSA, as well as microsoft. It is a classic example of a middle man attack. Why would you want someone's log of errors? It is a view of the entire system and all the user is doing within it.
They wouldn't do anything like that. Putin is an angel sent from above to save us from the big bad western governments. He would never allow such dirty practices, let alone encourage them. Really though, it's only bad when the US does it
The United States is the ONLY country in the entire world that has any transparency whatsoever regarding it's intelligence, which came about as a result of the Watergate era. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has done this - which leaves the United States open to criticisms, and worse, from countries that are completely secretive about their intelligence-gathering practices. It's about time we either went back to no transparency, or everybody elses becomes as transparent as ours has been.
It would be hard for us to shift back from* transparency at this point.. People will know we're doing it. And good luck convincing other countries to be transparent.
Speaking out of your ass here. Read up on the Dept of Homeland Security "No Fly" list. There are several thousand that are on it that have no business being on it. It literally takes a court to remove you from it. A Arab-American student was on there and went the distance to get herself removed...which most do not do. Anyhow the US Federal Government refused to disclose how one even gets on it. How is that transparent. If your on that thing thats it no more flying ever in your life. Thats just one tiny tiny aspect of the apparatus as well.
Spying on other countries is like pre-marital sex. Everyone is doing it, if your not. Then, well. Your weird. And when you do finally get laid, you will blow your cover to soon, and both involved parties will be a little more then very dissatisfied.
As much as I have railed against the NSA in these forums, and as much as I hate the level of spying they perform on both the foreign and domestic fronts, and as much as I don't like the prospects for a future under the watchful eye of authoritarian, bureaucratic assholes, they probably wouldn't have been able to set up the Fort Riley would-be bomber and prevent his planned terrorist suicide attack without intercepting his communications. Unfortunately for all of us, in order to effectively intercept his communications the NSA more than likely had to build profiles on him based on monitoring and filtering metadata of everybody's communications. Their analytical software builds dossiers in real time but it requires monitoring ALL possible communications and kicking out suspicious people for more in-depth data acquisition and analysis and that sux! My problem is, given the state of the world today, the levels of hatred and rampant, vengeful insanity seems to make horribly intrusive spying a necessity. I hate that! My other problem is, those capabilities also provide lowlife political power freaks a great weapon with which to target, smear, and hopefully destroy their political enemies - sort of like in the spirit of how Obama appointee's tried to use the IRS as political weapon against conservative non-profits. But the Left should never forget that it works both ways and one day there may be a Rightwing tyrant that seeks first his own kingdom and legacy using all the power at his disposal. When a tyrant, regardless of political ideology, has the NSA, FBI, CIA, DOJ, and IRS (I probably missed a few) at their disposal, they can really cause domestic citizens and foreigners alike a lot of migraine headaches - or worse - if it's politically expedient. It's a damned crime to be forced by circumstances to have to further empower these three lettered future gestapo-like agencies, regardless of what degree those circumstances may be a byproduct of some other previous foolishness. We're in a terrible catch-22 - damned if we do expand surveillance capabilities on EVERYBODY as we build a real Big Brother scenario, but damned in a different way if we don't and are hindered from catching and preventing Fort Riley type dickheads from doing Allah's bidding. Fuck!!! Sorry, man. Just ramblin.
How did ya like the us-german efforts to embed the stuxnet worm in the Iranian's Siemens S7 PLC development software so that we could cleverly access the Siemen's PLCs and "adjust" the speed of their centrifuges remotely and thereby fuck up the their uranium enrichment! Eventually got caught but it was an interesting try. Makes ya wonder...
Don't forget that the ONLY reason we have any problems with these dickheads doing Allah's bidding on Americans is a direct result of the government. They deliberately created this problem to have an excuse for war and to gain power. This NSA bullshit wouldn't be "necessary" at all if it weren't for them orchestrating this whole mess with full intention of having exactly this happen. This government is corrupt and evil to the core with zero redeeming qualities and is willing and eager to put everyone's safety, freedom and lives in peril in order to profit and gain power. They are pure psychopaths, every damn one of them.
That is exactly my point. If it were not for our government we wouldn't not have anything to worry about from the Islamic extremists. They wanted to create a perpetual war on purpose so that they could justify the shit that they are doing today. The United States government wants more terrorists and they want more terrorist attacks. They want more Americans to die and more wars to start around the world so that they can justify their extreme excessive power. The government has no interest in peace. There is no money to be made it and no power to be gained in peace. The sole purpose of government is to gain power and extract wealth and they can do neither nearly as well during a timduring a time of peace as they can during a time of perpetual war.
If you believe that the Islamic militants would not seize the opportunity to conquer us, if we eliminated our government and there was nothing to stop them, you've got some very misguided perceptions of human nature and the history of the world's most powerful religious groups.
I don't believe they would IF the United States government never existed and never went over there fucking with them constantly trying to create this problem. You don't see other first world countries having this huge problem with terrorism because they mind their own damn business and did not intentionally create a problem to be able to fight. I believe the only reason we have any problems in the Middle East whatsoever or any problems with Islam whatsoever is because the American government wanted it that way and purposely orchestrated it and this is exactly what they wanted to have happen. Their plan is going exactly perfect for them while the rest of us suffer and bear the weight of their greed