from the a-million-monkeys-typing-on-a-million-typewriters dept.
The National Archives are asking for volunteers to transcribe thousands of pages of declassified CIA documents. The endeavour is part of Sunshine Week, which is an open-government initiative started by a group of newspaper editors to educate people about the importance of government transparency and the dangers of excessive state secrecy.
You can browse some of the raw documents here.
[Editor's Note: The dates on most of the CIA documents are 25 years old or older, so perhaps are of more interest to amateur historians than government transparency watchdogs.]
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Three stories have been received which describes Kaspersky's malware analysis and their findings. Perhaps of equal interest is that all three reports suggest that the malware may be linked to the NSA. One also notes CDs sent through the USPS (United States Postal Service) seem to have been intercepted and modified. I'll let you draw your own conclusions and I look forward to the ensuing discussion.
The Newly-Discovered "Equation Group" Deemed World's Top Hackers
Kaspersky declined to publicly name the country behind the spying campaign, but Wired points some possible NSA connections:
Although the researchers have no solid evidence that the NSA is behind the tools and decline to make any attribution to that effect, there is circumstantial evidence that points to this conclusion. A keyword—GROK—found in a keylogger component appears in an NSA spy tool catalog leaked to journalists in 2013. The 53-page document details—with pictures, diagrams and secret codenames—an array of complex devices and capabilities available to intelligence operatives. The capabilities of several tools in the catalog identified by the codenames UNITEDRAKE, STRAITBAZZARE, VALIDATOR and SLICKERVICAR appear to match the tools Kaspersky found. These codenames don’t appear in the components from the Equation Group, but Kaspersky did find “UR” in EquationDrug, suggesting a possible connection to UNITEDRAKE (United Rake). Kaspersky also found other codenames in the components that aren’t in the NSA catalog but share the same naming conventions—they include SKYHOOKCHOW, STEALTHFIGHTER, DRINKPARSLEY, STRAITACID, LUTEUSOBSTOS, STRAITSHOOTER, and DESERTWINTER.
[More after the break.]
(Score: 1, Troll) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:01AM
This is an exceptionally good post. Well researched and exquisitely presented.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:03AM
It said this was mainly a result of weak growth in earnings for those in work, but it said tax increases and benefit cuts, as part of the government's actions to reduce the deficit, had also had a negative impact on average incomes.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:35AM
You are out of line sir!
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:37AM
You sir are a poo poo head
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:50AM
What will be galling to both Labour and Tories is that the IFS also faces two ways on the contentious question of whether inequality of income has worsened since the Crash.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:55AM
It says that if you assume that inflation is the same for all households, then income inequality is lower in 2014-15 then in 2007-08 - largely because of those steep rises in benefit payments in 2008 and 2009 that I mentioned earlier.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:49AM
It says that the prime culprit is the UK's hard-to-explain woeful productivity performance - lacklustre rises in the output of workers - which has meant that significant wage rises have been unaffordable.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:59AM
But in practice, it says, inflation between 2007 and 2010 was more pernicious for the poor than the rich, because of steep rises in food and energy prices which gobble up a disproportionately large portion of the incomes of the poorest.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:04AM
"It's astonishing actually that seven years later incomes are still no higher than they were pre-recession and indeed for working-age households they're still a bit below where they were pre-recession," IFS director Paul Johnson told the BBC.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:08AM
They are all obviously highly talented and well worth the money we pay them. Indeed, they should be rewarded with expensive holidays accompanied by hookers and bags of blow.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 3, Touché) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:36AM
Hear hear!
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:40AM
There there! 12367890
(Score: 1, Redundant) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:46AM
Funny? You don't know the meaning of the word. This is obviously a flamebait post because the AC can only count up to 10.
What kind of AC do you think you are?
Get back to /.!
It's always my fault...
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:57AM
I hate you all and I have never met any of you.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 2, Troll) by n1 on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:40AM
This is by far the most important story Soylent News has ever run, thank you submitter!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:53AM
I'm justifying why no-one should every disagree with you
It's always my fault...
(Score: 0, Troll) by n1 on Wednesday March 04 2015, @12:00PM
I ♥ moose wang!