NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security conference

Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by IanDrake on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @04:36PM (#6136669)

>the four-star general presented a timeline of terrorist attacks around the world, from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to the Boston Marathon attack.

Can anyone speak as to why, with the NSA's systems, they were not able to thwart an attack by the ass clowns in Boston? Russia even warned us about them and they made frequent contact with foreigners.

I'm sorry, but that terrorist event seems like low hanging fruit if their system really works to protect us.

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Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by northwest on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @05:09PM (#6136856)

The question is: Did they want to thwart the attack?

One obvious possibility is that the system that has been erected simply needs fear to be able to continue to exist.

Let some attacks happen (and some Taliban prisons break) from time to time and people can be and will be manipulated via fear, so the powerful stay powerful and the rich become richer. Same old, same old...

Next stop: Middle Class Gone.

Then, people will have nothing to lose again and wake up. Next, we'll have riots and one day, the old system is dead and history will repeat itself once more. So much for the long term.

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Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by lukifer on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @05:23PM (#6136943)

In wartime, it's not uncommon to not act on intel to stop an attack, so as to preserve its strategic value and save more lives later. For any insiders who truly believe in the NSA's mission (which is being generous), "let a few die today to preserve a system that will save thousands tomorrow" is not a big leap.

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Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by nhaehnle on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @05:24PM (#6136955)

The obvious conclusion to draw from this - and really, that anybody should be able to draw - is that the system doesn't work to protect regular people.

This shouldn't really come as a surprise, either. Surveillance is not effective for preventing crimes. It is somewhat more useful for investigating crimes after they've happened.

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Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by mpyne on Thursday August 01, 2013 @07:12PM (#6144254)

Because the NSA is dedicated toward detecting and gaining intel on organized terror collectives abroad.

Domestic terrorism is domestic and therefore under the FBI's purview. And despite what Snowden seems to think about mind-reading programs, unless either brother put out on the public Internet or phone communications what they were planning to do, there would have been no way for NSA to pre-emptively detect it even if they were warrantlessly monitoring all domestic communications.

So in a way your question is equivalent to asking why ASLR didn't stop that CSRF attack on the web page you just viewed.

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Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by McGlockenshire on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @08:14PM (#6137751)

> Can anyone speak as to why, with the NSA's systems, they were not able to thwart an attack by the ass clowns in Boston?

Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were granted legal permanent residence in 2007. Dzhokhar became a nautralized citizen in 2012. Tamerlan's application was on hold due to the DHS being a little suspicious of him.

If the system is working as it should, the NSA could have been prohibited from monitoring the brothers.

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