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NSA good guys



Dnia niedziela, 13 kwietnia 2014 20:32:18 Linux User pisze:
> On Sun, 13 Apr 2014 01:28:14 +0200
> 
> Lodewijk andré de la porte <[email protected]> wrote:
> > So. Are the NSA guys good guys? Well. They're the enemy of the
> > people, as they invade their privacy and therewith their safety. If
> > you can be blackmailed, studied, influenced, etc. you are weak and
> > vulnerable. Preaching to the choir, I guess.
> 
> 	Well, I get the impression that some of the voices of this
> 	choir still need some preaching directed at them =P
> 
> 
> 	I noticed something interesting in digital 'security'
> 	circles. People who deal with 'security' are, at first sight,
> 	technical people and are concerned with issues such as
> 	factoring integers,  permutations, routing protocols, etc.
> 	etc. etc.
> 
> 	However, all their technical expertise exists to
> 	achieve some political goals. And when you look at the
> 	political beliefs of these people, you see that they suck big
> 	time. As engineers they may be competent, but there's a step
> 	above engineering, and there, they fail.

This is so true. The "I'm not into politics, I just write code" stance needs 
to change.

It *does* matter for whom you write your code and how you future-proof it from 
being use to abuse people.

Simple example: dear sysadmins (of whom I am one), do you *really* need all 
those logs? They are a treasure-trove for LEAs. Unless you are required by 
law, just keep the last week or so, that's usually enough to debug problems as 
they arise.

-- 
Pozdr
rysiek
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