Very likely something happened, but it almost certainly wasn't like this.

I obviously don't know how accurate this piece is but a "folder directory" is, or at least used to be, a legit way to describe a folder full of folders.

You'll see outdated/unorthodox terminology like this all the time in old systems, and even some newer ones that were built or maintained by people who aren't native English speakers. Daily WTF used to be filled with this kind of stuff.

"So, X has been infiltrating <company> for the past few days."

"Really? <company>? <famous company>?"

"Yep. We're keeping them looped in on everything, and they told us to try to get as far as possible. Apparently they were running <outdated version> of <software> on one of their boxes, and <scanner> picked it up."

"That actually happens?"

"He's <highly surprising claim> right now. You'd be surprised how far you can get, jumping from one box to another."

I can't give much more detail than that, for obvious reasons, but the reality is that it's very methodical, very "boring" work. It's basically a giant matrix of probabilities: there are hundreds of thousands of attack vectors, and your job is to tap as many as possible, sorted by probability of effectiveness, until something sticks. Then use your head to get further, adapting to the situation on the fly.

And ... writing reports. Jesus, if someone had told me that 70% of your day would be spent writing reports, I probably wouldn't have joined. But the 30% of other stuff made up for it.

That feeling you get when you break into somewhere you're not supposed to be, and that you were paid to do it, is amazing. The rules change from engagement to engagement, but usually it's "do whatever you want, but don't modify any data, i.e. no destructive actions, and all info you've collected will be deleted at the end of the engagement."

Must be interesting to be a spook in the NSA doing that kind of stuff offensively.

Also, it might seem absurd that I'm comparing this story to the most elite hackers in the developed world. And maybe it is. But if you knew which <company> it was, and exactly what <highly surprising claim> was, you'd be shocked that one or two smart developers poking at internals were able to compromise the entire corporate network of <famous company>, to the point of being able to... well. Let's just say, I wish I could say. It's a weird feeling, seeing it with my own eyes, knowing it's true, and never being able to talk fully about it. :)

So I imagine the NSA spooks are doing similarlly-methodical work, with some cheat codes like "we intercepted their computer before delivery and installed a backdoor that only activates when we send a specially malformed packet that would normally be dropped and is therefore invisible, which grants us access as needed."

>And what they contained weren't glowing lines of code: Instead, Neil could see login screens.

maybe they're dealing with the kind of people who name their folders "directory"

(I trust Linebarger more than Bernays because the former also catalogues not only his failures, but sotto voce, even touches upon those of his mid-twentieth century society.)

Bonus clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLNAkPsjAEk (what's the hip hop equivalent?)

I'd guess because:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_Tibetan_program

"a nearly two decades long anti-Chinese covert operation focused on Tibet which consisted of "political action, propaganda, paramilitary and intelligence operations""

"Although it was formally assigned to the CIA, it was nevertheless closely coordinated with several other U.S. government agencies such as the Department of State and the Department of Defense."

Dalai Lama is where he is now as the result of this.

[0] one example: https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-a

Only if the site owner wants it so https://hstspreload.org/

Inspired by a low-tech single-ply version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Scherhorn

and Linebarger's suggestion for how to drive enemy intelligence mad: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48612/48612-h/48612-h.htm#Pag...

> "If you feel like showing off, average everything into everything else and call it the Gross Index of Total Enemy Morale. This won't fool anyone who knows the propaganda business, and you won't be able to do anything with or about it, but you can hang it on a month-by-month chart in the front office, where visitors can be impressed at getting in on a military secret. (Incidentally, if some smart enemy agent sees it and reports it back, enemy intelligence experts will go mad trying to figure out just how you got that figure. It's like the old joke that the average American is ten-elevenths White, 52% female, and always slightly pregnant.)"

TIL CthulhuPunk is a thing.

Anyone familiar enough with the Cthulhu-mythos to tell me if there are any impediments in canon to the following retcon: what if Great Old Ones are Scissor Entities, and appear to xenophobes as horrific monsters of vaguely anthropoid outline, with octopus-like heads and prodigious claws, but to xenophiles as animated pegasus unicorns, and, as part of their eternal struggle against the Blue Meanies, drive the former to gibbering madness but invite the latter over for tea?

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e9/a4/fa/e9a4fae35f467f77b98b...

He got to manage a country that just got invaded, that used to have a huge military and where the occupiers are still fighting the remnants of rebel forces in some part of the country.

In that context, he decided that the former officers from Saddam Hussein's regime would be barred from the new Iraq military and that they should not receive pension either.

He, put yourself in their shoes: when your job is to organize a military, that the only lawful employer refused your services and denies your pension, are you going to go homeless and beg in the streets or are you going to join a rebellious startup?

The ISIS of the origin was organized just like the Baath army was, because that's the framework the officers knew. There were some documents captured (that involved less "hacking" than physical invasion of command structures but of course we never know the amount of covert ops going on) and what they revealed was that one budget line was the biggest of the whole organization: pensions. Suicide bombing is not the career path everybody chose there.

ISIS is not a US creation: that would imply GWB's administration capacity to plan such a thing. But it came from crucial mistakes the US did despite being warned about these years prior.

The apocalyptic aspect (literally), for instance, is essential to understand ISIS, and it's early split from Al-Qaeda, for example.

Stopping the help provided by outside countries may have weakened the movement, but not prevented it.

The US finances many terrorist groups ourselves, so I'm not sure what your point is—nations are happy to take advantage of new powers regardless of how it conflicts with their propaganda. I don't know how you could look at the invasion of Iraq and come away with the conclusion that ISIS is either surprising or could have formed without our help.

(for a different blue-on-blue scenario: what might the cyber equivalent of leaving a grenade pin on an officer's pillow be?)

Note how the USSR dissolved without intervention.

Dropping bombs is like taking antibiotics, sometimes necessary but always creates resistance.

And who supplied those weapons of mass destruction to saddam? I wonder...

I won't go so far as to say that the whole fiasco could have been avoided with a functioning economy and some new civil service/protection branch to absorb the officers, but the US's strategy was one of the biggest contributors to ISIS's growth.