Confessions of a Cyber Warrior 213
snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Roger Grimes interviews a longtime friend and cyber warrior under contract with the U.S. government, offering a fascinating glimpse of the front lines in the ever-escalating and completely clandestine cyber war. From the interview: 'They didn't seem to care that I had hacked our own government years ago or that I smoked pot. I wasn't sure I was going to take the job, but then they showed me the work environment and introduced me to a few future co-workers. I was impressed. ... We have tens of thousands of ready-to-use bugs in single applications, single operating systems. ... It's all zero-days. Literally, if you can name the software or the controller, we have ways to exploit it. There is no software that isn't easily crackable. In the last few years, every publicly known and patched bug makes almost no impact on us. They aren't scratching the surface.'"
Re:saber rallying (Score:3, Informative)
"Does this sound like boasting to anyone else?..."
Boasting or not, I think everyone that speaks out about pervasive surveillance techniques should be paid attention. Whether or not their information is accurate, relevant or factual should be decided by ourselves. The NSA has shown us that they cannot be trusted to do anything but lie. If we are to get any accurate information, we have to start taking all perspectives into account, even those of the NSA shills, as they provide contrast.
And, if anyone is interested, "ThorGod" is an account I suspect of being associated with "Cold Fjord". He seems to like using Northern European references in his user names--there are others following the pattern, but I suspect those accounts are being used to "bank" moderation points. Look at my previous posts if you don't know what I am referring to.
And, again, please read the document linked in my signature--this is information that every single poster here on Slashdot needs to at least be aware of.
Re:Sounds like complete bullshit... (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, a lot of it sounds far-fetched to me as well.
" Most of the software written in the world has a bug every three to five lines of code. " Sure, buddy.
"It's all zero-days. Literally, if you can name the software or the controller, we have ways to exploit it. There is no software that isn't easily crackable. In the last few years, every publicly known and patched bug makes almost no impact on us. They aren't scratching the surface." Oookaaay, that sounds legit.
"My loft was up near the rafters, so I scooted over into the next storage area, climbed down" No lock-up facility I've been in has access through the roof space to the roof space into other units. Would you keep "$100,000 worth of computers, radio equipment, and oscilloscopes" in such a facility?
This reeks strongly of male bovine excrement.
Re:saber rallying (Score:5, Informative)
Once again we have Anachragnome posting his crackpot conspiracy theories about me. If you bothered reading his post above and find it persuasive, then you should read this post [slashdot.org] of his, and note this line:
This is East Germany, all over again--the NSA literally has us spying on each other, inadvertently or not.
Anachragnome seems to think that everyone is spying for the NSA. Who is it doing all this mutual spying? If you stop and think for even a moment you realize that the idea is nonsense. But it does play into his fear inducing agenda, including attempts to make people suspicious and fear me. He is engaging in the very same sort of behavior he is complaining about. By spreading fear he hopes to control people, to stamp out opinions he finds disagreeable, and control discussions. Ask yourself - are you living in fear? I don't. And yet he seems to want you to. Why?
Anachragnome seems to find great significance, even to the point of it being evidence that I am a government agent, that I have a different viewpoint, a minority viewpoint among the population of posters on Slashdot. For some reason he can't accept that different viewpoints don't constitute a conspiracy. What is the purpose of having civil rights if we all have to believe the same thing? I thought that was what fascism was about.
Further evidence that his claims are nonsense is the fact that he thinks that I am both an NSA plant and that I have multiple accounts named with a common theme, no doubt including the recently created troll accounts that have been trying to harass me of late (coid fjord [slashdot.org], and co1d fjord [slashdot.org]). That would seem to be pretty pathetic tradecraft if that were the case. His view is just another sad example of a crank seeing a pattern in the noise [scientificamerican.com] that doesn't really exist, and thinking it significant. Go ahead and read from the two troll accounts. I don't think you'll find much evidence to support Anachragnome's nonsense view. (If you think you have, read more of the thread and check UIDs.)
Apparently the only people that disagree with him are spies. Bow to his power, or you may be branded a "shill" and "forum breaker." Submit to his fear. [slashdot.org] He expects you to inform on each other. Obey him, or you may be branded a traitor too.
Or maybe he is just a crank full of suspicion and fear that should be ignored. Take your pick.