Potential Mission Areas for EDB (Embedded Devices Branch)
- Firmware Targets
- Software Targets
- Linux/Unix
BSD
- Solaris
- VxWorks - not addressed by any EDB work
- QNX - not addressed by any EDB work, big player in VSEP
BSA
Any post that includes a John Oliver video is a good post. I love that guy. He's like Lewis Black, but with a better accent.
On the topic of the CIA and weaponized tools: I am definitely of two minds. I expect the spooks who work for the U.S. Govt. to be building and arming for the next type of war : a cyber war or one fought inside computers, networks and smart devices of all kinds. They better be not only preparing tools to fight such a war, they better be playing to win because its a sure thing every other large entity with a budget is preparing to do the same. Defensive tools might also be handy.
The other side of that coin is the fear side : fear that the spooks will use those tools against you and I or anyone they deem worthy of a snoop or an interruption. That's not tin foil hats fear of things that have no merit, I think that's a legitimate fear given the track record of unsupervised groups with little or no oversite.
Knowing that a conflict will come with another nation or organized group, which would I rather see? A government unprepared (no tools, no countermeasures, no clue?) to deal with it or one that has the tools and could possibly misuse them on me. I would go for the prepared, locked and loaded approach and then use public policy and the rule of law to keep the spooks in line as much as we can.
The most disturbing thing to me about the Wikileaks disclosures about the CIA isn't the tools, or the targets, or even their current abilities. The most disturbing thing to me is that in 2017 after as many hacks and leaks as they've had, they CONTINUE to get hacked and leaked. This is one of our best secret groups. And they can't keep a secret a secret. That's what I find most disturbing. If they can't keep a secret, how can you or I protect our privacy?
