I for one am glad that the NSA "screwed up" with the leak.
It's all a delicate balancing act between organizational privacy and the governments of the world. Sure, certain governments can spy all they want, but then powerful organizations who do not want to be spied upon just build even stronger countermeasures. Sometimes, it's a good thing after all - especially if some of us just want some privacy. Government intrusion isn't always a good thing for security, as government does not always = security for every well-meaning citizen.
It was the government that wiped out Native Americans, brought slavery to America, imprisoned millions upon millions of people for recreational marijuana use since the 30's, etc.. etc.. etc.. Billions of lives were destroyed by governments across the world - imagine how much worse it would have been if Richard Nixon were President today, with his own ruthless version of NSA on steroids, spending $500 billion each year on it instead of the undisclosed secret budget of around $50B for non-military intelligence (Edward Snowden leaking info that the NSA received $10B in 2013). Every single guy would be subject to extreme drone-surveillance scrutiny just for saying that they "got high" or "wasted" on their facebook page, or whatever. They would all be arrested for misdemeanor charges, be fined $500 just for being in the same room as the guy that was smoking weed, and be imprisoned for a week or so if unable to pay the fines the first time.
"""Leaked documents showed NSA agents also spied on their "love interests," a practice NSA employees termed LOVEINT."""
"""The NSA was shown to be tracking the online sexual activity of people they termed "radicalizers" in order to discredit them.[142]"""
"""German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said "spying among friends" [from the NSA spying on her] was "unacceptable"[153]"""
"""Following the revelation of "Black Pearl", a program targeting private networks, the NSA was accused of extending beyond its primary mission of national security. The agency's intelligence-gathering operations had targeted, among others, oil giant Petrobras, Brazil's largest company.[143]"""
"""revealed that the NSA was paying U.S. private tech companies for "clandestine access" to their communications networks.[157]"""
(^^^ this only encourages companies to become even more intrusive - i.e, Google with their localization and other 'required' active account features)
"""Leaked slides revealed in Greenwald's book No Place to Hide, released in May 2014, showed that the NSA's stated objective was to "Collect it All," "Process it All," "Exploit it All," "Partner it All," "Sniff it All" and "Know it All."[160]"""
(^^^ Exploit my nakedness? A guy working at the NSA could force you to let him fuck your exotic wife once a month, or else set you up as a child porn lover.)
"""In an August 2014 interview, Snowden for the first time disclosed a cyberwarfare program in the works, codenamed MonsterMind. The program would "automate the process of hunting for the beginnings of a foreign cyberattack". The software would constantly look for traffic patterns indicating known or suspected attacks. What sets MonsterMind apart was that it would add a "unique new capability: instead of simply detecting and killing the malware at the point of entry, MonsterMind would automatically fire back, with no human involvement". Snowden expressed concern that often initial attacks are routed through computers in innocent third countries. "These attacks can be spoofed. You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia. And then we end up shooting back at a Russian hospital. What happens next?"[15]"""
( ^^^ Is that true security - like that hospital in Afghanistan bombed 'by mistake'? http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/msf-kunduz-...-1.3305257)
It's all a delicate balancing act between organizational privacy and the governments of the world. Sure, certain governments can spy all they want, but then powerful organizations who do not want to be spied upon just build even stronger countermeasures. Sometimes, it's a good thing after all - especially if some of us just want some privacy. Government intrusion isn't always a good thing for security, as government does not always = security for every well-meaning citizen.
It was the government that wiped out Native Americans, brought slavery to America, imprisoned millions upon millions of people for recreational marijuana use since the 30's, etc.. etc.. etc.. Billions of lives were destroyed by governments across the world - imagine how much worse it would have been if Richard Nixon were President today, with his own ruthless version of NSA on steroids, spending $500 billion each year on it instead of the undisclosed secret budget of around $50B for non-military intelligence (Edward Snowden leaking info that the NSA received $10B in 2013). Every single guy would be subject to extreme drone-surveillance scrutiny just for saying that they "got high" or "wasted" on their facebook page, or whatever. They would all be arrested for misdemeanor charges, be fined $500 just for being in the same room as the guy that was smoking weed, and be imprisoned for a week or so if unable to pay the fines the first time.
"""Leaked documents showed NSA agents also spied on their "love interests," a practice NSA employees termed LOVEINT."""
"""The NSA was shown to be tracking the online sexual activity of people they termed "radicalizers" in order to discredit them.[142]"""
"""German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said "spying among friends" [from the NSA spying on her] was "unacceptable"[153]"""
"""Following the revelation of "Black Pearl", a program targeting private networks, the NSA was accused of extending beyond its primary mission of national security. The agency's intelligence-gathering operations had targeted, among others, oil giant Petrobras, Brazil's largest company.[143]"""
"""revealed that the NSA was paying U.S. private tech companies for "clandestine access" to their communications networks.[157]"""
(^^^ this only encourages companies to become even more intrusive - i.e, Google with their localization and other 'required' active account features)
"""Leaked slides revealed in Greenwald's book No Place to Hide, released in May 2014, showed that the NSA's stated objective was to "Collect it All," "Process it All," "Exploit it All," "Partner it All," "Sniff it All" and "Know it All."[160]"""
(^^^ Exploit my nakedness? A guy working at the NSA could force you to let him fuck your exotic wife once a month, or else set you up as a child porn lover.)
"""In an August 2014 interview, Snowden for the first time disclosed a cyberwarfare program in the works, codenamed MonsterMind. The program would "automate the process of hunting for the beginnings of a foreign cyberattack". The software would constantly look for traffic patterns indicating known or suspected attacks. What sets MonsterMind apart was that it would add a "unique new capability: instead of simply detecting and killing the malware at the point of entry, MonsterMind would automatically fire back, with no human involvement". Snowden expressed concern that often initial attacks are routed through computers in innocent third countries. "These attacks can be spoofed. You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia. And then we end up shooting back at a Russian hospital. What happens next?"[15]"""
( ^^^ Is that true security - like that hospital in Afghanistan bombed 'by mistake'? http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/msf-kunduz-...-1.3305257)