You are given nude female workers and beer, and it's the beer you choose to fuck?

I question your self identity as a sexist.

Shachar

It does have a domestic function, but I suspect that's not what you meant. I thought it was implicit in my reply, but here it is explicitly: The NSA does not have any domestic spying function, charter or legitimacy.

Shachar

* By "spying", I mean data collection. Analysis of otherwise legally obtained domestic data is where I'm not sure where I stand. On the one hand, letting a military oriented organization perform police work (and vice versa, e.g. SWAT teams) leads to exactly the sort of bad behaviour we are all glad might soon be over. On the other hand, developing this huge organization specializing with data analysis, and then not using it when you need to seems like a waste.

Where things stand today, where the overstepping is so huge, I understand people's reaction in saying "no, do not let it do anything domestically". Then again, if we were to start from scratch, I could see a function for it as an operational arm carrying out search and computer related eavesdropping warrants for the FBI.

Like I said, I'm not sure where I stand on this.

No. It does not all die.

First, please remember that the NSA is a spy agency. So long that their targets are legitimate (more on that in a second), they are expected to do everything within their powers to get to it.

Subverting the standards was a low blow, but as the ol' Tennessee saying goes "fool me once.... shame on... you?". Of course, by the time those standards were drafted, the standards body should have already known better (selling Enigma based encryption devices to foreign countries well into the 70's, anyone?). I'm hopeful, however, that we'll get spared "third time a fool".

As for the other activities, well, this is how spying gets done. That is how you spy on people in this day and age. With all of the justified criticism of the NSA, it would still be bad if they couldn't spy at all. They do, in fact, have a function to fulfill, and it is a function that needs fulfilling.

Circling back to who the targets should be. Spying against friendly foreign country leaders is not against the the law, or even, as far as I understand it, against the NSA's charter. It is an extremely foolish thing to do, but I don't think changing the law is the way to handle it.

Shachar

Why don't you pick ONE that is actually about an actual Israeli company actually backdooring its own products for the Israeli government (or whatever)?

Because that was and is your claim, and neither of the two stories you linked discuss that. The first discusses Skype setting a backdoor, but does not mention Israel in any way or form (and even if it did, Skype is not, and has never been, an Israeli company). The second talks about how the NSA is cooperating with Israeli intelligence, and uses Israeli produced technology. Again, no mention of products shipping to either individual or governmental users being backdoored.

If there are, as you said, 100's of stories, I'm sure you can do better than these two.

Still bullshit FUD.

Shachar

Spreading FUD all over, aren't we?

First, Skype is not, and has never been, Israeli. ICQ hasn't been Israeli for ages and ages (sold to AOL, that's America Online) in 1998. That's 17 years ago. Either way, a search for "ICQ snowden backdoor" shows nothing relevant in any of the first 10 results, causing me to question the validity of trusting you as a source. If I'm wrong, by all means, please do provide sources.

Second, I used to be in charge of Check Point's product security (late 2000 to early 2003). If any Israeli product is backdoored, you'd expect Check Point's Firewall-1 to be it. In order for that to work, I'd need to know about it, or I might accidentally close the back door. I give you my word as a non-anonymous long time user of this site that no such intentional back doors exist in the product. I have never been asked to not fix a problem I've found, or to not look for certain types of security problems.

During my time there, a few security problems were found in FW-1. If memory serves me right, most were in the management and not in the actual enforcement unit. Either way, I have never seen such a problem and thought "this seems intentional". They always seemed like no more nor less than the usual sloppy programming creating security holes.

Israel has a notorious "cypher law". I actually did produce an encryption product. I only registered it after several years in which it was freely available through sourceforge. The registration process included me sending a request with links to the web site, and a reply saying it was approved as a "free encryption device" (i.e. - I do not need to re-validate it unless I change the crypto).

Now, I know the usual FUD about rsyncrypto, and I know people will say that that's because rsyncrypto's encryption sucks to begin with. All I can say about that is that the cypher law makes it legal to use freely available encryption from the internet without restriction (i.e. - gpg, ssh etc.). They also list the number of applications they processed and denied, and the last time they denied any application was around 2002 (I cannot find the page right now, sorry).

So, all in all, I think this:

is concentrated bullshit.

Shachar

Started a new job about eight months ago. Asked for a Unicomp keyboard, but said I'd bring my own first so people have a chance to object before money is spent.

In a room with two other people, one didn't mind and the other did object. Went with a MS ergonomic 4000 or something.

Moved to another room. Room mate said he also owned a unicomp. Next room over had people sensitive to noise. We decided to both bring our buckling spring on April 1st and see what people say. March 31st, one of the next door programmers talks to me how another programmer in his room has noisy keyboard (membrane with keys not going up all the way, nothing on the order of magnitude of a buckling spring). Asks if he can move to our room. I put on a straight face and say "sure, come by tomorrow and see how things work out for you".

Due to unrelated circumstances, I am away from work for the next week. When I come back, to my surprise, next door programer has not moved in. It appears that, despite repeated assurances from my room mate that this is all just an April Fools joke, the mere fact that the keyboard is on my desk, unused, has deterred him from moving.

Shachar

Just to add to your comment, there are beginning of studies that claim they can distinguish between those who can from those who can't as early as first day of school.

Shachar

Reported a zero day used to attack my site two weeks ago. Attached tcpdump of attack.

Have not heard back. Not even a simple "We've received your report and will get around to it whenever".

Shachar

Let's tone down the ad-hominem, please.

I brought forward the period of time the data was published as indication of intent. It does imply that the publication was unintended.

There is a Hebrew proverb, "the law will puncture the mountain". It means strict adherence to the letter of the law, regardless of circumstances (or common sense).

If you say "that's the agreement, and he violated it, however brief and however unintentional", then you still have to account to the 30 other vulnerabilities, for which Groupon is also refusing to pay, for no good reason at all.

Shachar

You mean "thing", right? Only one, only by mistake, only for a short period of time.

I'm with the researcher on this one.

Shachar

I have no idea why, but when koan linked to Joel Stein's article, I real "Joseph Stalin". Brain fart of some sort or another.

I stand by the rest of my comment.

Shachar

You're not very good distinguishing between group pride and control, are you?

Shachar

You claimed that no movies are made about other genocides done by the Nazis because the Jews want the term "Holocaust" to only refer to that aspect of it. It is not possible for the to happen if the Jews don't actually control Hollywood. Merely producing a few movies won't stop others from producing other movies.

Also, I cannot help but point out that while you emphatically deny that you said that, you did not deny that that is what you believe. Quite the contrary, you tried to bring support to precisely the same point of view you deny expressing (albeit from the only person in history who can be said to have murdered even more people than Hitler himself).

It should be fairly obvious at this point that I have zero control over what you do or do not do. In terms of what the term means, however, you are wrong. See wikipedia, Merriam-Webster and the Oxford dictionary.

Which is strange, because after I called you that, I went on to address your argument. Now why would I do that if all I want to do is kill the conversation?

While I completely agree that the label "anti-semite" is used too quickly on people who do not deserve it, in your case, given that you repeat a well known anti-semite story, it seems warranted.

Shachar

He'd certainly commend you on this comment. Particularly the part where you say:

So the Jews control Hollywood? Anti-Semitic much?

The Armenian Holocaust have been hashed mostly for political reasons. Too many nations care too much about what Turkey thinks, and they are extremely touchy about the matter. Let's hope that now that the Pope bashed them for it, that it will get more attention.

As for the Nazis non-Jews murder victims: the Nazis haven't been nearly as methodical in persecuting Roma, blacks, socialists etc. as they have the Jews. One of the side effects is that no one is really certain who should be counted toward that number (as opposed to "normal" war casualties). In fact, according to wikipedia, the number you quote (5 million) is on the low end of the estimates range, with the high end reaching as far as 16 million!

Shachar

60 million is a bit over-reaching. The only numbers I know that match that from WWII are for the number of casualties during the war. The number of people the Nazies actually murdered is not 100% clear, because other than the Jews, the Nazies weren't as methodical about the murders. Including 6 million Jews, the estimates range from 11 to 20 million.

I don't think it makes sense to count people killed, say, by invading British or American armies as people Goebbels can be held personally accountable for.

Shachar