Ex-NSA Chief Paul Nakasone Has a Warning for the Tech World (wired.com) 58
Former NSA and Cyber Command chief Paul Nakasone told the Defcon security conference this month that technology companies will find it "very, very difficult" to remain neutral through 2025 and 2026.
Speaking with Defcon founder Jeff Moss in Las Vegas, Nakasone, now an OpenAI board member, addressed the intersection of technology and politics following the Trump administration's removal of cybersecurity officials deemed disloyal and revocation of security clearances for former CISA directors Chris Krebs and Jen Easterly. Nakasone also called ransomware "among the great scourges that we have in our country," stating the U.S. is "not making progress against ransomware."
Speaking with Defcon founder Jeff Moss in Las Vegas, Nakasone, now an OpenAI board member, addressed the intersection of technology and politics following the Trump administration's removal of cybersecurity officials deemed disloyal and revocation of security clearances for former CISA directors Chris Krebs and Jen Easterly. Nakasone also called ransomware "among the great scourges that we have in our country," stating the U.S. is "not making progress against ransomware."
the usual bullshit premise (Score:1, Troll)
“I think we've entered a space now in the world where technology has become political and basically every one of us is conflicted,” Moss said
Neither one of these things is true. Technology hasn't become political, technology companies are bowing to politics. And no pro-trumper is conflicted.
And it should be understood that built into this setup is the assumption that politicizing technology is something that must be accepted, not resisted.
"...every place that I went to, I was twice the age of
Re:the usual bullshit premise (Score:5, Insightful)
Everything is political because Trump makes everything a test of loyalty/subservience of him.
(NOT) the usual bullshit premise (Score:5, Insightful)
People scoffed at the outlandish claims that dictators are fond of -- the perfect, nay superhuman, performance of the North Korean Kims at every task they ever undertake; the wild claims of Mao, Idi Amin, Duvalier, etc. But the reason for these claims is to force people to show unquestioned support even it if defies logic, physics, or reality. If you support the Maximum Leader you will endorse anything he says, no matter how insane. And if you do not support Maximum Leader you are his enemy and must be destroyed.
Trump has always demanded such total subservience -- the fake Time magazine covers on his club walls, the trophies he won in golf tournaments that never existed, his prints of famous art in museums that he claims are the originals, are small beer fantasies but everyone associated with him always had to pretend they were real. Now this guy has sole control over one of the two super-power nuclear arsenals.
Trump's tariff war is his Great Leap Forward -- an ignorant and lunatic grand economic policy, though one hopes it will be less disastrous.
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Everything is political because Trump makes everything a test of loyalty/subservience of him.
The naivety. As if technology wasn't politicized from the very beginning.
The very fathers of the the computing era were either straight-laced businessmen, or hippy radicals. Both with very different ideas of what technology should do and be in society. Both implementing their worldviews into the companies or movements. From the mainframe makers whose products the West's Cold War infrastructure was based on, to Bay Area rebels that fought to overturn the applecarts, technology has carried politics with it li
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The onset of the internet as essentially a DoD entity had a lot to do with the ground rules at first. A lot of people don't remember the IBM consent decree and the rollicking regulatory and court battles that were the industry before the onset of the PC era. The belief by AT&T that their monopoly power would permit them to press a thumb to the entire tech world was very real in the 1980s.
So i'm not sure there ever really was a 'golden age'.
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Everything is political because progressives makes everything a test of loyalty/subservience to their dogma.
See how easy that is?
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"Stupid people like the kind of people who are bitter..."
No, stupid people like the kind that say the very specific things I quoted.
"...the president having staff that support his agenda..."
Yes, the president and his staff are stupid people.
"...the private sector; which has never been 'neutral' but always looking to suck off whoever they saw as in political ascendance because that is the best strategy for making and keeping their money."
You seem very familiar with all this, is it because you vote for people
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He has 34 felony convictions by a unanimous jury.
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And the DNC still couldn't find a candidate to beat the worst possible candidate the USA has ever ran for president. I mean, fuck, you lost to Trump, Twice. Talk about failure to read the room.
Re:the usual bullshit premise (Score:5, Informative)
Trump is the only one that has even made an attempt to purge those criminals!
Trump's band of merry thugs attacked hundreds of police officers, injuring 140. Officers lost eyes, suffered brain damage, four officers would later go on to commit suicide and a woman was shot to death.
Trump's response was to declare it a "day of love". He proceeded to pardon every last one of the criminal motherfuckers who attacked all of those police officers. Yet here you are blindly cheerleading for a lawless animal superficially resembling an orange clown. You are a piece of shit.
Re:the usual bullshit premise (Score:5, Interesting)
When he was running for office, Trump wanted you to believe that he was going to expose the pedophiles in the Epstein files.
Did you believe him then?
Now that he's in office, he wants you to believe that the Epstein files are a hoax, invented by the Democrats.
Do you believe him now?
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“I think we've entered a space now in the world where technology has become political and basically every one of us is conflicted,” Moss said
Neither one of these things is true. Technology hasn't become political, technology companies are bowing to politics. And no pro-trumper is conflicted.
And it should be understood that built into this setup is the assumption that politicizing technology is something that must be accepted, not resisted.
"...every place that I went to, I was twice the age of the people that talked to me... when I came back to DC ... I was one of the younger people there. OK, that's a problem. That's a problem for our nation.”
Why is that a problem? These are two very different jobs.
The problem we have is stupid people in charge.
Requoted because of the censors with mod points. I mostly agree with the substance, though it could have been worded more clearly and I think the Subject is kind of empty...
The moderation system on Slashdot has mostly outlived it's utility, but Slashdot lacks the resources to fix anything. Not even Unicode--and that fix had obviously been implemented during the years (long ago) when there was a Japanese version of Slashdot.
Bootlickers (Score:3, Informative)
I guess we're cool with the military policing cities now? https://apnews.com/live/donald... [apnews.com]
Re:Bootlickers (Score:5, Insightful)
Those who elected Cheeto Benito absolutely are cool with that.
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No one should be surprised this is happening or that it will get worse. What is disheartening is knowing the criminals responsible will never be held to account and that many will hold power in future administrations. Now matter what evil the perpetrate, Republicans know they get power roughly half the time until they can banish voting entirely.
Republicans have, for decades now, viewed majority black areas as needing to be put under the boot. Imposing military rule on DC is a win-win, racists love it and
Re:Bootlickers (Score:4, Interesting)
What is DC? What has DC always been? (Hint: A federally regulated and administered district)
The DC home rule act was always a mistake and should be reversed. The whole point of the creation of the District of Columbia as a federal capitol of a union of states is that it would be neutral with no interests of its own, unlike states, existing solely as a place for the federal government to conduct its business on behalf of the other states. "Home Rule" has led to its current state, along with demands for statehood and senators, completely contradicting the explicit purpose of the district. Congress should go back to direct district management. DC was never intended as a normal place to live like everywhere else.
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What would your opinion be if Obama did the same thing?
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What would your opinion be if Obama did the same thing?
The same. DC should be a neutral capitol regardless of who is in power. Any future Democrat, Republican, whoever. James Madison had a good idea when he came up with the concept of the non-state capitol district. Besides, the Constitution mandates that the district is ultimately under the exclusive control of Congress anyway:
The District is the federal capital; as such, the Constitution grants the United States Congress exclusive jurisdiction over the District in "all cases whatsoever". Before 1874 and since 1973, Congress has allowed certain powers of government to be carried out by locally elected officials. However, Congress maintains the power to overturn local laws and exercises greater oversight of the district than exists for any U.S. state. Furthermore, the District's elected government exists under the grace of Congress and could theoretically be revoked at any time.
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I've always felt the people that live in DC were really just residents of Maryland. They should get to vote for Maryland senators, maybe DC would get a house of reps person at most but that would really just be a Maryland house of reps person. I've never really understood why it isn't that way.
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What would your opinion be if Obama did the same thing?
I'd have been fine with it. I voted for the guy TWICE. (I regret it in hindsight, but that's another discussion - I never vote party line. Not once, ever - I pick and choose my candidates.
I don't care of it's a Democrat or a Republican that brings me what I want. DUH! I'm interested in results. DC has been a giant goddamn shit-hole of murder and crime for decades. It's pathetic. Our nation's capital has long been one of the most dangerous cities in our country.
It really looks, to me, like the De
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In general, yes. It's a Federal district. Congress is tasked with the administration of the Capitol and only doesn't due to their abdication back in the 1970s.
Its fair to take issue with the manner that this policing effort is being carried out (it appears to be due to Executive fiat rather than due to a specific act of Congress). Behaving as though local control in the District of Columbia is somehow sacrosanct is completely bogus. Bringing in National Guard units to reinforce understaffed and/or ineffec
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Nothing to worry about... that's just preparations for Jan 6, 2029.
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Modded troll, really? Wow.
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If you are concerned about Democracy, the best thing your can do is make some friends on the other side of the isle and have good faith conversations. The effect will be much larger than anything you write here. Making fun of and attacking independents asking for faith questions is the way to lose votes and elections.
I'm sorry but when one party has as their stated mission "we want to destroy democracy" your solution is a "good faith conversation"? I don't know what direction time flows in Japan but here it's forward only and 2016 is a long ways backward.
Hillary conceded 2016 the next day after the election. Trump loses in 2020 and plots a conspiracy to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history and is by far the most anti-Democratic candidate in our lifetimes by far, but you're "con
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I don't need the words, I have the actions.
Comprehensive Timeline on False Electors Scheme in 2020 Presidential Election [justsecurity.org]
"A June 2024 Gallup poll found 51% of respondents identified as independents, the highest figure ever recorded in the survey." You think all those independents voted for Trump?
Nope but I bet at least 50% of them did, that's my point. People say things but they know who they support, again, I can look at their beliefs and their actions. Those who claim to be the most centrist usually just happen to share and defend Republican beliefs. Also Trump won the popular vote, that fact Democrats defected makes my point, they support Republicans. What, are they also s
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NYC is allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections..
You go right ahead and show me where that is illegal or unconstitutional little buddy.
That makes *my case*, that is definitionally *more democracy*. The fact you think that way shows in fact you are the anti-democratic ones after all!
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I didn't say it was illegal or unconstitutional, fucktard. The citizens of a country are the only ones that should be voting in any fucking election.
Local elections are not Federal elections you dope. You don't even understand what you claim to defend.
THIS COUNTRY WAS NOT SET UP TO BE A DEMOCRACY, YOU GIGANTIC PIECE OF LIBERAL SHIT.
Once you are done getting triggered I suggest you start reading what this country was "set up to be". You'll probably be surprised how cognizant they were of many of the issues we are arguing over now. "Republic not democracy" is a brain destroying phrase that means nothing besides giving you cover to be anti-democratic (because you don't actually like democracy).
Full Text of The Federalist Papers [loc.gov]
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You won't find "the destruction of democracy" anywhere in the RNC platform.
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When you have the actions the words don't matter that much, especially from liars.
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You claimed it was their "stated mission". Who is the liar now? Stop throwing stones from your glass house.
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Ahh, you know what, If you have to reach that hard it's pretty much as good as "you're right about the underlying thing you are insinuating for sure" because otherwise you might be inclined to you know, say they're not completely anti democratic in action.
But hey, "best kind of correct" and all that.
Re: One of my concerns on Slashdot (Score:1)
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Nowhere does Project 2025 say that their intention or goal is to "destroy democracy". You may not like it's contents - and the same may apply to me. But don't lie and claim that their stated intent is to eliminate the republic.
And like it or not, that's a Heritage Foundation project rather than an official policy statement from the RNC so...
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"The effect will be much larger than anything you write here."
Why do you assume that /. posters do not engage in conversations face to face?
Also, the current "situation" in the US is not political in any conventional sense. Overthrow of the government is not politics, engaging as though it were is choosing to play by different rules. That is how you lose.
"...the best thing your can do is make some friends on the other side of the isle..."
Maybe you should inform yourself on how politics in the US now works
US Democracy (Score:2)
I'm concerned for democracy.
I think you mean that you are concerned for US democracy. Democracy in general is alive and well in many other countries and is not under threat although I will concede that the results of it seem to have noted declined in quality recently. Moreover with Trump's requirement that all NATO countries spend more on defence we are all becoming much less reliant on our alliance with the US to defend that democracy.
US democracy itself though is in desperate need of modernization. Although a truly inspired syst
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Quite frankly, it's not looking that good elsewhere.
Don't get me wrong, it's hard to find more blatant fascism and stupidity that MAGA, but the far right has been rising globally for a long time, and they are not that far from MAGA.
And no, I don't think the problem in the US is the 2 party system. I actually think it's a potentially rather good system once you include the primaries.
The following are what progressives, Antifa, Critical Theorists label “far right”:
- controlled borders
- free speech
- property rights
- judging individuals according to merit, productivity, or actual individual need
- opposition to judgement by identity
- independent judiciaries
- independent policing
- rule of law
They also label “far right” the popular, often majority, parties that hold the above views (in the U.S., Poland, Hungary, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, France, etc.
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No, democracy is under attack virtually everywhere. From all sorts of directions, even from well-meaning people of all political stripes. Let's not be complacent. Hungary's Urban was showing us how it's done. Trump followed his blueprint but managed to do what has taken Urban 10 years in only a matter of months.
In Canada, right-wing extremists are gaining power and voice even though they are in a minority, thanks to sympathetic politicians willing to pander to them.
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In Canada, right-wing extremists are gaining power...
The problem with modern politics is that one person's extremist is another person's mainstream party and vice versa. Yes, there are some far right wing idiots in Canada - I live in Alberta so it would be hard to miss them - but they are not so extreme that they are a threat to democracy and that's the difference. Indeed, some of their most extreme policies, like a referendum for separation, rely entirely on a democratic vote which shows that they want to use democracy not subvert it.
Having a party in po
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but they are not so extreme that they are a threat to democracy and that's the difference
Excuse me? Is your province not holding a SECOND referendum to try to break away from Canada? Breaking away from a democratic country is definitely not supporting democracy.
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I've shifted more independent in recent years since the Democrats backed far right candidates in primaries
...seriously? Which of Mr Biden's policies made him into a far right candidate? He and "Momala" tried some crazy crap. They're the standard bearers for the left over the last four years. They tried student loan debt relief (asking tax payers to pay for many useless degrees is irresponsible and benefits universities more than it does the students). They tried expanded protections for transgender students under Title IX (which is far from a centrist position regardless of what you or I think about that policy
"not making progress" is relative (Score:3)
Nakasone also called ransomware "among the great scourges that we have in our country," stating the U.S. is "not making progress against ransomware."
Well, when it comes to ransomware, not all platforms are created equal. https://cybernews.com/security... [cybernews.com] But for TOO MANY people, Microsoft's software/security failures are America's failures. And this will continue until Microsoft, and other software vendors (including Apple) become legally liable for the security faults in their software.
SSL added and removed here (Score:2)
After the NSA got busted hacking all the internet connections (including those of American companies), I think tech companies will find it hard to side with the NSA.
Remain neutral by selling out (Score:2)
Just work for and do whatever those who are willing to pay your salary say. This is what most Defcon attendees do now anyway.
Making progress I would have thought (Score:2)
With Trump weaponizing the Federal government, effectively holding citizens and companies hostage to his whims until they handover the requisite "loyalty payment", I would have thought the US was making great progress in the development of "ransomware".
At this point I'm waiting for Trump to recreate the Blackmail Show from Monty Python but in real life. I mean he does kinda do it now with his tariff policy.
Ignore the Spooks (Score:2)
If anyone tells you our Country is at risk because people in charge of mass government censorship campaigns got fired then they're your enemy domestic.
Unless you're one of them and they're your partner in crime.
We must move past not trusting spooks to ignoring spooks, except as to understand the situation vis-a-vis enemy intelligence.
PS Free Snowden!
What billionaires want (Score:2)
Ransomware has everything billionaires want: Fraud, untraceable money, simultaneous privacy rape and anonymous victims. The quality of US education and US politics (over the last 20 years) makes the people far more vulnerable to propaganda and emotional click-bait. That's why the crime is ignored. The problem to billionaires being, crime-syndicates are reaping all the benefits.