You’d have to be living in the middle of nowhere (e.g. central Siberia) and totally off the grid to have missed the news stories on the NSA data interception. Anyone in the data security world really just had their suspicions confirmed. Why else would the NSA be building bigger-and-bigger data centres?  The NSA had to be collecting the data somewhere, didn’t they? Not surprisingly by collecting, note that I don’t say analysing!, the NSA is being overwhelmed by spam. 🙂 The NSA (and the CIA, and the DIA, and the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), and the DGSE (Direction GĂ©nĂ©rale de la SĂ©curitĂ© ExtĂ©rieure), and SIS/MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service), etc. not to mention Canada’s own CSEC (Communications Security Establishment Canada) are probably simply drowning in data. Not information since information is useful.
However, an article on CBC.ca’s news site, NSA spying on Merkel phone could get diplomats expelled, may put things in context – at least in the world of espionage:
Still, parties on all sides acknowledge that spy-versus-spy eavesdropping is widespread even among allies.
“The magnitude of the eavesdropping is what shocked us,” former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview.
“Let’s be honest, we eavesdrop too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don’t have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous.”
That is probably the greatest truth to the story…
…or as the Israeli’s might say “…so long as you don’t get caught…”
About Mike Pelley
Let’s see… A little about me…
I’ve been around information technology since 1983 with computers such as DEC Rainbows (weird machine – the standard DOS couldn’t format its own floppy disks – remember them? – and I had to format them on a friend’s IBM PC) to Radio Shack TRS-80 to Apple ][e and Apple //c in the beginning.
I have programmed in 8-bit assembly language on 6502, FORTRAN and COBOL on IBM System/370 (and I still hate JCL), VAX BASIC and COBOL (and a weird and massive WordPerfect 4.0 macro) on DEC VMS (Alpha), C/C++ on Digital Unix (ALPHA), and C/C++, Perl (it may be powerful but I still hate it), PHP on Linux (Red Hat, Centos, Ubuntu, etc.).
I have work with databases such as Digital RDB (later to become Oracle RDB), Oracle DBMS, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL on VAX, Alpha, Sun and Intel.
Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn. See http://lnkd.in/nhTRZe
I still think that Digital created some of the best ideas in the world: VAX clustering, DSSI disks (forerunner to SCSI) and the Alpha processor (first commercial 64-bit processor – Red Hat screamed on an Alpha!). DEC just could not seem to be able to give air conditioners away to someone lost in the Sahara Desert!
VMware is one of the best ways to get the most out of an x64 server. And I have tried Oracle VM, Virtual Box and Microsoft Virtual Server.
Outside of that I am a huge military history buff starting in the early 20th century. I love Ford Mustangs (my ’87 Mustang GT was awesome) and if I had the money I would have a Porsche 928S4. If I had a lot of money I would have a Porsche 911 Turbo.
I also play too much AmrA 3 Exile mod. Over 5,000+ hours...
I have a wonderful son, Cameron. I have a long suffering (Do you really need all that computer junk?) wife, Paula. I live in Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador.
