Online, You're Being Watched At All Times; Act Accordingly. 299
An anonymous reader writes "Kaspersky Lab's Internet security expert Costin Raiu discusses internet surveillance claims that you should assume that you're being watched at all times. The article reports that Raiu conducts his online activities under the assumption that his movements are being monitored by government hackers. Raiu: 'I operate under the principle that my computer is owned by at least three governments' ... 'this is not meant as a scare tactic, but a rather as a statement of fact that should now be the default setting for everyone.'"
So be sure to surf as "unethically" as possible. (Score:1, Insightful)
If everyone is evil, they have nobody to zero in on.
A Perfect Defense (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:BOYCOTT STARTS NOW (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dear NSA (Score:3, Insightful)
You miss the point. It does not MATTER if you are "important" or not. Seriously consider the implications of a total surveillance state.
lurk moar (Score:2, Insightful)
fuck beta
Re:Dear NSA (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:some security expert... (Score:4, Insightful)
Any security expert will tell you to assume that any system you are using, even your own, is compromised, whether it is or not and regardless of whatever steps have been taken to secure it.
Source: I get paid tons of money to provide security consulting.
No surprise for anyone with a clue.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've always treated 'online' the same as postcards.
Anything else was/is naive, and this was apparent to anyone that actually understood networks, and 'online'.
Where the problem stems from, is 'security solutions' being added in after the fact. It(the internet) was touted as 'the Information Highway' for a reason...it was.
It was never touted as 'the Secure Information Highway', and when commercialization hit the 'Information Highway', that did not change.
This subject(internet security) is the poster child of unintended consequences.
There are ways of doing business/secure transactions with networks, but it seems no one wants to spend the effort or $$ required to do so.
Until that attitude changes, this kind of 'news' will be a regular, ongoing event. Convenience will trump security anytime money is involved...look at history for supporting evidence.
Re:Most likely they are pwned by NSA (Score:5, Insightful)
Anecdotal evidence is usually not all that useful. Real statistics are more reliable: http://chart.av-comparatives.o... [av-comparatives.org]
Re:Ohhh, Slashdot beta makes sense now (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, I like Beta.
In all fairness, there are some things I like about beta, and some things I don't. I think the animosity is stemming from the apparent inflexibility on the idea of maintaining classic as an alternative indefinitely for those who prefer it. And perhaps for not fixing some things (aforementioned via direct linked historical comment) that could use fixing before deploying it on all (or even 25% of) users.
Please Read Before Modding Down (Score:4, Insightful)
What company directs 25% of its users to a partially-working, not-ready-for-production website? Please realize that Beta will not have the features that we want, because they interfere with Dice's plans for Slashdot. Dice presents Slashdot to their advertisers as a "Social Media for B2B Technology" [slashdotmedia.com] platform. B2B - that's the reason Beta looks like a generic wordpress-based news site. To be sure, a large precentage of Slashdotters work in IT, but Slashdot is most certainly not a B2B site.
Nevertheless, Dice is desperate to make money off of Slashdot, even at the cost of losing much of its current userbase. Turning Slashdot into a social platform for IT "decision makers" is a Haily Mary attempt to recoup the failed investment Dice made in buying Slashdot. As they have revealed in a press release [diceholdingsinc.com] detailing their performance in 2013, this acquisition has not lived up to their financial expectations:
Slashdot Media was acquired to provide content and services that are important to technology professionals in their everyday work lives and to leverage that reach into the global technology community benefiting user engagement on the Dice.com site. The expected benefits have started to be realized at Dice.com. However, advertising revenue has declined over the past year and there is no improvement expected in the future financial performance of Slashdot Media's underlying advertising business. Therefore, $7.2 million of intangible assets and $6.3 million of goodwill related to Slashdot Media were reduced to zero.
The new Beta interface is not the result of a superficial makeover. Keeping in mind that Dice felt confident enough to present it as the new face of Slashdot to 25% of its visitors, it is safe to say that the new commenting and moderation system is exactly how they intended it to be. It is a new design that deliberately cripples the one thing that makes Slashdot what it is today, viz. thebest commenting and moderation system online today. From the users' perspective, there is nothing wrong with Slashdot that demands gutting its foundations and dumping the one part of Slashdot we exactly like. As others have commented, this is an attempt to monetize
This is why they ignore the detailed feedback we have given them in the months since Beta was first revealed. This is also why they now disregard our grievances and complaints. Their claims of hearing us are a deliberate snow job. It is only pretense, since at the same time they openly admit that Classic will be cancelled soon [slashdot.org]:
"Most importantly, we want
They want you to think you're watched and give up (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a standard trope in every epic novel from middle-earth to outer space: the bad guys want you to hunker down. To hell with that!
Smiert Spionam!
Re:A Perfect Defense (Score:0, Insightful)
Anyone accused of using a computer for illegal purposes now has a perfect defense. After all if credentialed experts believe that computers are controlled by the numerous people of several governments then there has to be hard proof that the doer was the one who took those actions on his PC.
You would have to have a terminal case of Asperger's syndrome to believe that any judge or jury would even bother to consider the above without overwhelming corroborating evidence.
PROTIP: Unlike a compiler, people can tell when you're BSing them.
Re:Not a Lurker Here (Score:2, Insightful)
This is a free (as in beer) service
Well when you go pissing in the free beer, what the fuck do you expect to happen?
The 'Oh but it's free!" bullshit excuse for fucking up something that's perfectly fine if left alone is way over-used, and elicits no sympathy from me.
Fuck Beta.
Re:Ohhh, Slashdot beta makes sense now (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's how I'd react to this if it were 100% true: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fuck Beta (Score:2, Insightful)
FuckBeta. LongLiveAlpha.
Re:Please Read Before Modding Down (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Dear NSA (Score:5, Insightful)
You miss the point. It does not MATTER if you are "important" or not.
Seriously consider the implications of a total surveillance state.
As someone that grew under a totalitarian regime in Eastern Europe, I can tell you it's ugly like hell.
It doesn't matter that:
* then, you wouldn't know if the other person would snitch on you; and...
* now you wouldn't know if the computer/phone of the other's person or the ones you own/use would snitch on you (might as well add the nowadays almost ubiquitous CCTV-es to equations, possibly all equipped tomorrow with microphones);
in time - quite quickly - the entire fabric of society evolves to "by default, don't trust anyone".
Can you imagine a life where, no matter what you do, you need to use "steganography" (even when talking face-to-face)? Well, this is how it is in a total surveillance state.
What are the consequences, you ask? The most immediate and with the highest impact:
* one is likely to spend enormous amount of effort in balancing between "getting a message across" and "flying under the radar" (expressing the message in an innocuous way).
* the sense of community is broken down (can't build meaningful relations while in a permanent "don't trust" state of mind)
Even letting aside the economy mismanagement, the two above alone would be just enough to explain why the former "communist" regimes failed: too much effort wasted in "being paranoid" by everybody and too less "organic social efficiency".
Re: MOD PARENT *BETA* (Score:1, Insightful)
Most of those who don't give a rats ass about the changes don't participate in slashdot discussions. They just pretend that they understand nerds and tech and whatnot. Also I guess I should point out that I am not "hiding" behind an anonymous posting even though I have the best posts are usually from those wishing to hide their identity.
Seriously, why does Dice have to be the death of Slashdot? Can't the powers that be find a way to monitize an assest without comprimising that which makes this site worth visiting? I blame all those who don't browse the site at -1.