Hacker News Reader

Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

This isn't at all true. For instance, during Snowdonia, it was an article of faith on HN that NSA had a portal they could log into to pop a shell on Google's servers, when in fact what it turned out they had was a crappy web portal that they used to submit FISA directives.

It would be more accurate to say that these concerns are directionally correct, but that the particulars matter a lot.

View on HN

There was "SSL added and removed here :)". Seems a bit more than a crappy web portal.

https://i.insider.com/5271388a6bb3f7ac4756d90c?width=700

This is a diagram of how a reverse proxy works. I didn't say, or mean to suggest, that NSA were competent systems architects.

I agree with GP on this one. When I look at a slide listing "Current Efforts - Google" which is marked TOP SECRET/SI/NOFORN, saying "SSL added and removed here :)" alongside "Traffic in clear text here" it doesn't indicate to me that they're interested in figuring out how does proxy work as much as it makes me think they're looking where to tap into that juice unencrypted data.

Also, Google seems to have believed that this was what that meant, and they rolled out encryption in response:

> "We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links, especially the links in the slide," Drummond said in a statement.

> "We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fibre networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-24751821

Why do you speak with such certainty? How can you possibly know if anything you just said is accurate?

Don't bother, hes a pro government shill with an upvote brigade and special privileges here on HN.

HN is largely astro turfed and bringkng that up results in bans because its against the guidelines. The mods lie all the time about this stuff.

tptacek has no special privileges on HN (edit: that I know about).

> The mods lie all the time about this stuff.

I'm the only mod who posts publicly and I don't remember lying. Can you give an example?

All my special privileges on HN come from my NSA affiliation.

Ok, I've edited my parent comment.

I think it's safe to say GP has an opinion of what a "tin foil hat nutter" is, which is reasonable with regards to documented reality. However, there are a number of people who poison the well with absurd claims such as "NSA can break all encryption with quantum computers, so you might as well use unencrypted chats on Whatsapp using Windows". So of course such claims are bogus; documents show that what they do is find ways around the encryption, through bugs or architectural gaps.

In the background of uncertainty I wouldn't restrict this as directional at all. Also not if you extrapolate past behavior of intelligence agencies and incentives to collect data. The agency probably isn't evil, but the point is that such ambitions grow and corrupt and that such data should be protected. So the extend of the access isn't even of primary concern, but there is much to suggest it extends a "shitty web portal".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com