[epcoa]

Geez, this crowd. The clearest evidence that it was not an NSA attack is that it was not very good. It modified a CVS mirror. At no time was the source of truth (the bitkeeper repo) in any danger. Anybody that knew how this stuff worked at the time would have known it would be caught immediately. Not very state level expertise, pretty sad if it was the NSA.

[p-e-w]

> The clearest evidence that it was not an NSA attack is that it was not very good.

I suspect you are being sarcastic, but in case you aren't, you may want to reexamine your assumptions.

The colossal incompetence that is synonymous with government work doesn't magically stop at three-letter agencies. The FBI/CIA communication fuckups before 9/11 are just one famous example.

The idea that the NSA is staffed with "uber hackers" is a Hollywood fantasy. A government job working as a hacker is still a government job. Why would someone with that skillset, who can get a job at FAANG for 10x the salary, submit to the bureaucracy and monitoring BS that comes with working for an intelligence agency? I'm sure there are a select few who find this appealing, but the vast majority are just going the take the money and the free life.

[hatenberg]

Iranian centrifuges would disagree with you as does the conversation about the apple exploit chain from last week.

[justsid]

Those two were my wake up calls. The US absolutely is in the hacking business, but they are not in the getting caught business. Everything we have seen so far is incredibly sophisticated and took years to discover. How can you then go out and claim that the NSA isn’t incredibly competent?

See also all of the intelligence the US has provided about the Russian invasion into Ukraine. The US is really good at spy craft.

[stevehawk]

maybe 10x the salary (probably not) but also a correlated increase in hours instead of a contractually mandated maximum of 40 hours, combined with the legal inability to do work from home, discuss work at home, and a lot of related perks.

[p-e-w]

Also "perks" like having your life put under the microscope at regular intervals, going to prison if you talk about what you do, etc.

And I strongly doubt that agencies that are known to routinely violate the law, the constitution, and human rights care about "contractually mandated" 40-hour workweeks.

[stevehawk]

> And I strongly doubt that agencies that are known to routinely violate the law, the constitution, and human rights care about "contractually mandated" 40-hour workweeks.

lol they 100% do.. because they're all contractors bidding for the work.. so if one company bid X man hours for a cost plus contract and won as the lowest bidder and then put in 3x the time, either the winner would sue for being underpaid or, if they were paid, the loserss would sue because of impropriety.

[philistine]

Knowing Silicon Valley, the NSA and CIA are full of minorities who can’t get hired there because of the latent racism.

[deaddodo]

> The idea that the NSA is staffed with "uber hackers" is a Hollywood fantasy.

Inversely correlative, the idea that the NSA/CIA/FBI are staffed by incompetent technologists (hackers, devs, etc) is a Hacker News fantasy.

[themerone]

FAANG money is a relatively recent thing. Stock options used to be the only way you might make millions as a developer, at that was always a gamble. The NSA probably has a lot of seasoned developers who started their careers when the pay gap was much smaller.

[epcoa]

> I'm sure there are a select few who find this appealing

That’s really all you need dude. And yet both private and public sector intelligence jobs are selective. Supply and demand might help you reconcile your other points.

You slightly underestimate the pool of extremely patriotic or nationalistic smart engineers and scientists around.

If your basic thesis was correct no video games would get made either. Most of them could go get that FAANG money for arguably better work life balance. People have more motivations than you realize. And the idea that all the smartest engineers and scientists exclusively work for FAANG is a contrivance only believed on this dumb site. (The equally idiotic corollary is that all the smartest people work in software).

I also think you are underestimating the lifetime earning potential of top intelligence workers. 9 to 5 government jobs don’t have to be forever.

Finally, the sophistication of state level attacks such as in Iran is clear. The evidence exists, and you are wrong.

And you’re missing the point, it isn’t even that this attack wasn’t sophisticated it was that clearly no one sat down for even a few minutes to discuss how it would be detected. An organization, even a private hacking group, would have discussed this.

[joncrane]

Not to mention it being extremely difficult to travel internationally, and not being able to have close personal friendships with many people who live in other countries. Not being able to partake in THC consumption EVER, much less any other recreational substance besides alcohol. The list goes on.

I understand that it pays very well and there's decent work/life balance in terms of hours. But you have to essentially work in a windowless cell with no internet. And for lots of people with the curious hacker mentality, it would be a chore to "keep your nose clean" as they say.

I live in the DC area and the stereotype of the bland, khaki, polo, and white sneakers wearing boring person is true.

[epcoa]

This thread is already full of silly archetypes and over generalizations not borne out by the reality. With that in mind: When you say drug using, “curious hacker mentality” all I can think of is Eric Raymond and the implication that this wizard of fetchmail is just too smart to work with the boring likes of von Neumann, Turing and Shannon, Tao, etc.

> Not being able to partake in THC consumption EVER

The all caps tickles me. I don’t think this is a huge sacrifice outside some limited circles. Some of the smartest people are ethical vegetarians.

[kwar13]

I think you give the government a lot more credibility than deserved...

[shzhdbi09gv8ioi]

I'd trust grugq over you any day of the week, lol.

It's funny when you don't understand who you are replying to.

[epcoa]

I replied to their comment because it was related, but where do you get the impression it is not supportive? I’m responding to the idiots poking holes in that claim.

It's funny when you don't read carefully.