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Comment by chippy | Hacker News Reader

Your observation is spot on. The people doing the work for GCHQ and the NSA are just like us. They are geeks and technologists. They are probably members of hacker news.

This is the most believable part of the fantastic film Enemy of the State - the geeks in the van doing the work.

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>The people doing the work for GCHQ and the NSA are just like us.

That's the scariest part: it's the banality of evil, updated for the XXI century. Would you turn down a safe and well-paid government job? Would you be a contractor building the Death Star?

(for the record, this is not a new question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iQd... )

You could always take the job and then build a tiny vulnerability into the exhaust ports. It'd be incredibly difficult for anybody to take advantage of such a vulnerability, so you'd probably get away with it.

Alternatively, you perform the task faithfully and are unfairly blamed when said feature is exploited by a family cabal :

http://www.dorkly.com/article/59234/an-open-letter-from-a-de...

I turn them down in the sense that I have ruled out ever applying for those jobs. I've had enough angst when I thought my guild leadership in WoW was making unfair decisions, there is no way I could live with myself if I worked for one of these agencies.

The Death Star job would be almost impossible to turn down; space, lasers and stuff... but nope, working conditions suck, especially the boss who's a SERIOUS asshole.

A boss that kills of incompetent middle management and leaves the rank and file alone would be an improvement to some places I've worked. ;-)

Demolishing entire planets... not so much an improvement.

Lord Vader simply has high standards.

>The people doing the work for GCHQ and the NSA are just like us. They are geeks and technologists.

Of course they are. What else would they be? And some might even frequent HN -- including certain apologists.

That doesn't make what they do any less disturbing or any less tied to interests against the general population and freedom.

So, the "Banality of Evil" reference below is spot on.

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