Sunday, July 20, 2014

What I am reading 7/20/2014 - Bad Bosses and Russian Hackers, Another Day In America

Gizmodo - Sure Your Job Sucks, But At Least Darth Vader's Not Your Boss -
the worst part isn't the force-strangling or lack of faith. It's having to work alongside the jerk and pretend like nothing ever happened.


Most of the bosses that I had who were like this were in the Navy so their behavior was moderated to an extent by the knowledge that if worse came to worse that I could always knock them out and sell them to some third world whorehouse for use with their more experimental clientele.  Not that such a thought ever crossed my mind and I certainly never blurted it out in the middle of a meeting where my Chief was rambling on and on about my many shortcomings.

GeekWire - My Uber got pulled over by the Denver police — and then things got really weird -

Same old, "Uber's great! Cabs Suck!" schtick.  

Bloomberg Business Week - How Russian Hackers Stole the Nasdaq -
In October 2010, a Federal Bureau of Investigation system monitoring U.S. Internet traffic picked up an alert. The signal was coming from Nasdaq (NDAQ). It looked like malware had snuck into the company’s central servers. There were indications that the intruder was not a kid somewhere, but the intelligence agency of another country. More troubling still: When the U.S. experts got a better look at the malware, they realized it was attack code, designed to cause damage.
There is no such thing as perfect security, but when you even ignore the basics, as it appears NASDAQ did, you are just asking for trouble.

Quartz - Putin is having trouble backing out of the corner in which he’s trapped himself -

Edward Lucas, of the Center for European Policy Analysis, suggests that the problem is the corner itself: even if he wanted to shift course, Putin has little room to maneuver after months of building a forceful domestic case—and his people into a frenzy—against outside enemies. He can’t back down from the brink, Lucas told Quartz in an email exchange. It would be “too humiliating now that he has demonized the West and Ukraine.”

OK, this is purely speculation and NOT related to any conversations I may or may not have had with friends who have been involved in Signals Intelligence both in the Marine Corps and in the Navy.  

Suppose you had a world leader who was being an ass - what do you do?  Sanctions, right?  And if sanctions don't work?   Well you can try military force, but in this case that isn't possible because a) The country that ass-leader is in charge of is a major power, and b) We don't have a President who can make a forceful enough case.  In that case maybe the NSA and CIA can help by - I don't know shooting down a passenger jet and making it look like the other guys did it.  

It wouldn't be that hard.  

The CIA is known to have stashes of Russian / Soviet weaponry, including tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft missles, etc.  The also have access to uniforms and expertise in placing people into positions infiltrate or act as nationals of other countries.  They also have a history of dirty trick operations like this.

Then we have the NSA.  Their job is Signals Intelligence, including disinformation.  So far all the evidence pointing at rebels or Russians has been intercepted conversations and some facebook posts, a system that the NSA is widely known to have compromised.  And whose is being asked to validate this evidence?  The NSA.

Again I am NOT saying this is anything but speculation, but possibly it bears consideration.




*If you haven't guessed yet, all the above NSA / CIA talk is complete BS.  If you seriously considered it for even a second, please re-evaluate your decision making style*

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