Sunday December 22, 2013

I've Been Thinking:

The sensational headlines should not have come as a surprise to anyone who dabbles even a little in intelligence.

Prism, the NSA program, tapped the phones and computers of Israel's prime minister and senior leadership during meetings. They tapped emails and telephone calls.

The operating assumption is always that your phone and computer are being tapped. No one in a position of power should ever say anything secure on the phone or write anything secure in an email.

All secure messages are delivered face to face and then only in very secure places. Places where lips cannot be read. Even the president of the United States sets up a tent in his hotel room and all documents and important conversations take place inside that tent and away from probing telephoto lenses and prying visual and audio optics.

Computers, cell phones, land lines are all child’s play to intelligence services.

Most memos and conversations do not have to be secret and sometimes information is leaked deliberately in order to create a designed response or to set a plan in motion.

It is not about insult or trust - it is all about knowledge. And knowledge is power.

Sometimes, knowing too much tips your hand. Sometimes, the other side slips and says something that they could only have received from information gleaned from a tap.

That's where the game gets interesting.

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