A footnote from this morning’s dramatic airport conference convened by whistleblower-on-the-run Edward Snowden: if what Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch says is accurate, the former NSA contractor uses an email service called Lavabit. Pretty cool features list. If it’s good enough for the most wanted hacker in the world… (HT: @ericragle.) READ THE REST
1 Like
Thanks for the hat tip Xeni!
1 Like
Except that Snowden’s not a hacker.
2 Likes
Signed up.
1 Like
How so?
1 Like
He didn’t have to “hack” anything to get his information. Having that info was part of his job.
1 Like
So any similar services that may not be about to face huge amounts of NSA interest?
Copying files to a thumb drive and handing them to a reporter is far from hacking.
Using any electronic device in a way the DHS doesn’t like is hacking of the blackest kind. Even a 4-function calculator.
I’ve not yet made any moves on this, but I think Autistici/Inventati (website: http://www.autistici.org/en/index.html) looks interesting. I found out about it here: https://prism-break.org/, which is a good resource for getting started on researching various tools/clients for communicating that are privacy-focused.
1 Like
No a blackhat would have known how to do it and get away with it without getting trapped in a Russian airport for eternity.
I know we all want to make this guy out to be some uber leet hero, but really he’s just a guy who jumped at an opportunity without giving it much thought.
The world is playing Catch Snowden Game. So I actually created a game called CatchSnowden.com
Ofcourse the game is not to simply play the game but use secured services to play the bigger game.
Technically, this is correct. However, one could argue he used a social engineering hack on the entire NSA since he specifically took a lower paying job in order to gain access to information he knew in advance he wanted to leak.
1 Like
he’s just a guy who jumped at an opportunity without giving it much thought.
That’s funny, that’s how I feel about your approach to your post there.
That’s not what happened at all. You should read more of Snowden’s interviews, etc. and get more background information on him as well.
For one, Snowden is a highly skilled hacker… trained by the NSA themselves.
sources:
For another, Snowden had the choice to remain anonymous and if you’d read his interviews you’d know that he deliberated for a long time over his decision to whistleblow and go public with the data. It was far from the fantasy you ignorantly portrayed.
No a blackhat would have known how to do it and get away with it without getting trapped in a Russian airport for eternity.
Once again, Snowden could have chosen to do all this anonymously. If you read his interviews and statements, he makes it clear why he chose to go public instead.
I know we all want to make this guy out to be some uber leet hero
If your intention is to disparage Snowden, you’re not doing a very good job by positing factual inaccuracies, half-truths and expressing general ignorance on the matter.
2 Likes
Copying files to a thumb drive and handing them to a reporter is far from hacking.
You drastically oversimplified everything Snowden did to accomplish his whistleblowing. You should probably further educate yourself on the matter before attempting to speak from authority on this again. As far as whether it’s real, tough-guy “hacking” or not is pedantic and beside the point anyway.
Nope. They all do.
E-Penis image macro is a bit much.
You make it sound dirty.
oh shit, was this a phishing link?..it broke my browser when I clicked it.
Autistici/Inventati are quite famous on the Italian scene, they have been an integral part of the alternative/squatting/radical-left scene for more than a decade. Their expertise is good, but assume all of services they might provide are under constant surveillance by Italian authorities. Their servers are periodically raided by the police with the flimsiest of excuse. Trivia: the original “Autistici” name (which does, of course, translate as “autistic people”) comes from the typical geek behaviour which, during squats/demos/gatherings etc, would invariably see them log on their computers and talk to each other through IRC, even when they might all be sitting at the same desk.
