Interesting sentiment, considering things got to a point in Dr. Strangelove where soldiers breaking the law was the only hope for saving the world:

Perhaps encouraging these officers to come up with outside the box solutions is a good idea. Not that it worked in the movie, but they need to be prepared to piss on a spark plug if they think it will do any good.

Facebook is a "U.S. business" that is "offering services" to users in sanctioned countries. Only it's the Iranian government that tries to block it and redirects you to a page informing users the Web site they are trying to access is "bad for your health." I suppose the difference is that Facebook can be used to help people organize to overthrow the regime the U.S. government does not want, so that makes it OK. Plus, more people using it in a sanctioned country gives the NSA a clearer picture of the trends, attitudes and threats in that country.

I'm not saying Facebook should be restricted from offering services in countries like Iran. I'm saying laws should be applied equally, not politically.

Forget your CDs, it's your DVD collection you should be worried about. "All I remember is the first part! 09 F9... then the hex code for some shade of red... I swear!" This is why everyone should have that number handy.

You would have to know where the signature was. If the document was distributed to a few dozen people, a single character could be used to identify which one leaked the document. It could be a punctuation "mistake" or any number of other minor things you wouldn't think to change. It could be a different thing that is changed in each version (in John's copy there is an extra space after the end of the first sentence, but in Jane's copy there is an extra space after the second sentence, etc.).

Unsophisticated societies use lead pipes to force people to divulge information.
Sophisticated societies use court orders.
Modern societies use waterboarding.
Postmodern societies use facebook.

Think about it.

I think steganography is far more likely to be used to track the people who leak information. When information gets out that was apparently available to multiple people, the leaker may not realize that his copy had a specific steganographic signature that identifies him as the source. It could be a pattern of extra spaces or line breaks in the code of document that he doesn't even see. The increased availability of the technology will likely mean smaller companies or government agencies will use it to suppress leaks.

To the typical user it just looks like a random bunch of ones and zeros.

I give up. Are the Chinese running KitKat or Key Lime Pie on Chang'e 3?

You can keep your stinking healthcare! Oh wait...

NSA PROCUREMENT OFFICE (EQUIPMENT DIVISION)

Mr. Kyosuke:

Thank you for your recent letter offering a good price on a Hollerith machine. I regret to inform you that the NSA already has several of these in its possession that were purchased at an IBM auction of surplus machines that had been leased to the German government in the 1940s. We have made many custom improvements to the German machines over the years and would not think of wasting them on something as trivial as contracts.

However, as replacement parts for these machines are in short supply and knowledge of their purpose is a forgotten state secret we have sent agents from the Procurement Office (Human Division) to collect you and your machine. They are at your front and back doors now. Please cooperate with them fully to make this easier on everyone.

Again, thank you for contacting the NSA and helping us keep you safe.

The largest private university in Cyprus, the University of Nicosia, announced last week it will begin accepting BTC for tuition, books, room and board, and it will offer a master's-level course of study on digital currency to help people outside the Bitcoinsphere understand it. Those two developments would seem to inject a significant amount of legitimacy into Bitcoin.

Although, if you invest in Bitcoin to attend UNic (official abbreviation of University of Nicosia) and the currency crashes, you may find that you've become a financial eunuch. It's all Greek to me.

Perhaps there was some dark paperwork incident in his past of which we're unaware:

I've never trusted Arial documents, and I never will. I could never forgive them for the death of my boy.

Careless words like that in a personal log can earn you a one-way ticket to Rura Penthe.