If you had any doubt left about how you are viewed by your own government, this story should erase it. Last week we found out that the National Security Agency (NSA) and its UK counterpart GCHQ have backdoors into various security offerings used online, including popular service providers like Facebook, Google, Hotmail and Yahoo, as well as technologies like SSL. Additionally, they can access data on iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices, which together make up over 90% of the smart phone market.
As bad as that is, however, that’s not the worst of it.
The documentation in the Guardian report tells the real story behind all the spying, hacking and infiltration – in it, the NSA and GCHQ openly state that the enemy isn’t al-Qaeda or some other terrorist organization as you would expect. Instead, you are the enemy.
Among other things, the program is designed to “insert vulnerabilities into commercial encryption systems”. These would be known to the NSA, but to no one else, including ordinary customers, who are tellingly referred to in the document as “adversaries”.
Also interesting to note is that the NSA programs are named after Civil War battles:
The full extent of the N.S.A.’s decoding capabilities is known only to a limited group of top analysts from the so-called Five Eyes: the N.S.A. and its counterparts in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Only they are cleared for the Bullrun program, the successor to one called Manassas — both names of American Civil War battles. A parallel GCHQ counterencryption program is called Edgehill, named for the first battle of the English Civil War of the 17th century.
Unlike some classified information that can be parceled out on a strict “need to know†basis, one document makes clear that with Bullrun, “there will be NO ‘need to know.’ â€
Only a small cadre of trusted contractors were allowed to join Bullrun. It does not appear that Mr. Snowden was among them, but he nonetheless managed to obtain dozens of classified documents referring to the program’s capabilities, methods and sources.
Lying, spying on Americans, warrantless searches and seizures, and now openly stating that the American people are the enemy, all the while having the impudence to name their programs after Civil War battles.
Kinda tells you where we stand, doesn’t it?
Beyond the obvious string of obscenties, my initial reaction certainly iosn’t shock.
That Dosent really surprise me. They have there hands in so many pockets anyway.
Wow. They aren’t leaving many options in this deal are they?
Tor has the same “holes” in it also – The claim it’s to prevent child p0rn, however, you can make your own mind up about this.
Anyone who has worked in computer security would recognize that this is just a term of art, similar to referring to people at each end of an encrypted conversation as “Bob” and “Alice.” There’s a lot of stuff to be upset about with recent Snowden/NSA revelations, this isn’t one of them.
I too have worked in computer security, and normally I would agree with you. However, in this case, I don’t. The NSA privately refers to the public as “consumers and other adversaries”, all the while illegally spying on us. I have a huge problem with this. This labeling, along with using Civil War battles as program names, tells me exactly how they view us.
Far more interested in their actions than their terminology, and I use this terminology so often in thread models, red/blue teaming, etc. that it’s meaningless to me.
I don’t care what they call me if they stop monitoring my every move. 🙂
I’ll drink to that.
Nothing to see here…just illegal spying, stealing our data, labeling us terrorists, all the while disobeying Congress and defying our Constitution. Calling us adversaries is just industry lingo, and using Civil War battle names is purely coincidence. Move along.
Also, if you are paying attention, they just started referring to American Patriots as freedom fighters. Seems like the next round of acceleration has just been initiated in the negative branding of us gun owners and vets. Great blog, Keep up the good work.
If anyone didn’t suspect and know this was going on long before this stuff came out then they are naive and a fool
The gooberment is not anyone’s friend and they sure as shit aren’t “There to help you” and these commie pricks running the country no sure as shit don’t give a rat’s ass about us peons except for what we can do for them
Symbolism does matter. EVERY country, in times of war/conflict tries to dehuminize their enemies. This makes it easier to kill them or treat them in ways you wouldn’t treat people you respect. I’m sure most of you are aware of this. It happened when I was in the military and it happens now in the military. Too see our government using this type of tactics against their fellow Americans is very troubling. It’s a sign of how powerful the forces that want a full on stazi style police state are.