Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • March 12, 2025 10:39 AM

@ DownUnder’er, Brian,

With regards,

“… wouldn’t the USA have a very easy way of bribing chinese hackers into defecting and working FOR them?”

Actually the short answer is “NO”.

The longer answer is the US shot themselves in the foot years ago so nobody with half a brain and a little knowledge of history would trust them.

In the past the US government entities / agencies have used “fake job offers” and similar to get people out from their home nation “protective cover”…

So the first question anyone should ask is “Is this a setup?” To which the answer is with quite a probability measure is “Yes”.

Then there are all those Chinese people now dead that were recruited by the CIA who basically dumped a “faux OpSec” Internet based system on them… China and Iran worked it out and some got “Shot to send a message” others well nobody realy knows.

The US set up the lousy system because they could not be bothered to check if it was actually secure to a suitable level. Clearly it was not because those involved did not think. Worse the “recruiters” apparently cared not a jot for the lives and well being of those they recruited, nor did those who were involved on a day to day basis with those recruited.

The list goes on but consider something else…

The Chinese are known to “persecute the relatives, co-workers, friends, etc” not just in China or areas China has legal influence over, but in any country where they have a “friends agency”.

The purpose of the agency is to track any and all people with Chinese ancestry to at least 5th generation. They then put pressure on to these people anyway they can to spy on others.

As you can imagine it’s quite hard to hide from all such people as basically anyone who has Chinese ancestry is a very real risk as they will “look after their own” and thus in effect “turn in” anyone new etc.

As the US will not protect such “human assets”, in fact it’s known that US Entities/Agencies will actually use it as “leverage”…

So in all honesty it’s not a good option.

Now add in the recent “green card cancellation” news that has gone world wide…

Most people outside of the US who have followed events this Century know, that no matter what they do, they will never ever be even “3rd Class Citizens” because they won’t be allowed to be a “citizen” and what that brings via legal protections etc.

This is what happens when you have a system that is based only on,

“Short term success, without responsibility.”

Because it creates a tsunami of,

“Long term failure.”

I’ve mentioned this before by pointing out the issue of “self entitlement” that goes with a significant imbalance on the

“Individual Rights v Social Responsibility”

Spectrum. If the nation you are in pushes “Individual Rights” and ignores or worse destroys “Social Responsibility”, you get those very unpleasant types moving up the hierarchy very rapidly. And nobody who can avoid them would willingly chose to have anything to do with them unless of course they could gain significantly (which is what certain insiders have been known to do in the past by “selling secrets”).

As has been indicated in the Bible (Galatians 6:7) and earlier,

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.”

(There is also the observation about dogs and their vomit to remember as well).

Clive Robinson • March 13, 2025 3:01 AM

@ Winter,

With regards,

“What do people expect to gain from voting for corrupt people time and again?”

Do they actually have any choice in the matter?

Douglas Adams summed up part of the issue by describing “The Lizard Problem”,

“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in.”
…
Ford shrugged again.
“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”

The problem not with “democracy” but the evil that is “representational democracy” that I’ve indicated in the past is it’s “A monkeys tea party” pretending to be a “faux beauty pageant”.

As we all should know by now with beauty pageants like XXX-USA is,

1, All the entrants have one earlier pageants.
2, The winners of the earlier pagents were selected by judges not the general populous.
3, The judges are all tied in some way to select only certain contestants.

So if 2028 happens, I expect to see lizards in swim suits throwing tea cakes at each other whilst the band on the deck plays “Hail to the chef” and “We’ll all learn together as the ship goes down”.