FBI Reports Woman Intended To Ship Pelosi's Office Computer To Russia Craig Melvin MSNBC

[catbyte]

[onecaliberal]

1. Won't be having that smirk much longer.

[SheltieLover]

4. Nope!

[C_U_L8R]

2. They aren't patriots

That's for damn sure.

[getagrip_already]

3. ya can't make this shite up......

But fed laptops are encrypted and it would be difficult even for russia to crack it without the keys.

I'm not saying impossible, but it won't be a short process unless they have an active set of administrator level keys...

She is also missing. Wonder if she hopped a flight with an oligarch or on a trump sponsored flight.

[ancianita]

6. NSA doesn't need the laptop if one bit Pelosi's data are in the cloud. NSA quickly gets a FISA

warrant, Apple gives it access to Pelosi cloud data, which NSA then uses to seize any and all other data, Pelosi's or otherwise.

It's interesting that she's disappeared so well that they can't find her.

[getagrip_already]

8. no data will be in the cloud.....

The hard drive is encrypted. The data is only accessible if a key card is inserted at startup. Pelosi presumably still has hers. Nobody leaves a cac card in their computer because it is their key to move around the building.

Without a decryption key, no data is accessible for any purpose.

So it isn't going to appear on the cloud without russian help. And they will still need a card with the proper authorization.

Hopefully she tries to get into the laptop. That ought to be funny.

[Evolve Dammit]

10. Unless she left for Russia, they'll find her.

[thucythucy]

12. The FBI says the computer has perhaps been destroyed

and it has not left the country.

I don't know anything about this technology, but I wonder if computers with anything classified wouldn't have a GPS locater that could be activated in case of theft. This would seem to be a reasonable precaution. The only way to dismantle such a homing device would be to destroy the computer entirely--which is maybe what's behind this FBI speculation?

I wonder if you might have any insights on this, since you seem at least somewhat familiar with this sort of thing.

[ancianita]

13. Do you have a link? No outlets that I've checked have reported that.

Total computer security is next to impossible if the NSA doesn't want it. So I don't know what clearance level Pelosi's allowed, but the problem could lie with her or the NSA and FBI not knowing if anyone somehow got hold of her encryption keys. Pure speculation. I've never read anything about 'GPS locators', so I don't know. If you have an info link on that I'd appreciate checking it out.

I wish I had insights beyond what history and whistleblowers have told us, but I don't.
Except to say that Russia lets Snowden live for reasons neither he nor Russia has revealed.
He acquired (but doesn't now have possession of) scripts of the codes of the systems of the NSA for 'collect it all' surveillance. He likely still knows more than 99.9% of the people in the NSA did at that time, and so he's had value. I'm in no way impugning his integrity, either. He did a lot of good for Americans that changed SCOTUS law about our standing when taking the NSA to court over our 4th Amendment rights. But the NSA can change its structures fast; and whether or not it's learned lessons, we can't really know.

Anyway, if anything in Pelosi's laptop is important to NSA secrets, which I think is far from the case here, we'll not know anything but 'official reports' the FBI gives us. That's it. We're wise to not operate from any other assumption than theirs, which is 'need to know' to the American public. Doesn't mean that the NSA hasn't set themselves above the Constitution; they have. They'll probably continue to while The Patriot Act and NDAA's exist.

What looks important is that the FBI is willing to let Americans think that this story is about Pelosi's laptop value, and that a named person committed a federal crime against her and, if they want to go further, America; but whatever we're told works to preserve NSA and FBI's institutional value. Not knowing the whole truth may not be a bad thing in a cyberwar with Russia, even if it's rumored that we started it.

[IronLionZion]

16. Self destruction technology is common

Plenty of laptops with national security data on them can automatically destroy the data if an unauthorized user is trying to access it.

[IronLionZion]

14. That's why many defense and intel agencies use the cloud for storage

especially in dangerous places where a laptop could get into the wrong hands.

They don't store too much critical info on laptops for the second reason that hard drives can fail easily. So the cloud is important for backups.

[ancianita]

15. Right. But server attacks are a problem, too, and so they exist in cryptic coloration throughout

the land, so agencies can concentrate on cyber invaders. They've got so many layered systems that laptops are the least of their worries.

Which is why this story seems suspicious to me, more like a public distraction while other vulnerabilities get hardened up.

[kozar]

7. True, and I wonder

What the Russians got in their huge hack. They may well have the encryption keys.


Koz

[getagrip_already]

9. even the keys would be encrypted....

So they will need more than just a copy of the keys.....

[magicarpet]

5. God Bless AmeriKKKa,..... unless Russia places a higher bid,....

.... for the top secret info.

[RVN VET71]

11. Another Fool for Trump

Her life is ended. I hope she comes to understand as she watches time and prison devour he hopes and potential. I hope she comes to understand the deliberate lies and aberrant conspiracy theories that led her to throw away all chance at future happiness, and that she was not a “patriot” seeking to save the Republic, but a fool who fell easy prey, simple minded prey, to a racist cult of fascist lies and absurd fictions.

You’ll be remembered, you poor, traitorous moron (if you are remembered at all) not as a “patriot” not even as a “misguided rebel seeking to save the Republic.” Nope.

You’ll be remembered as a fool lured to a life-ending misadventure in an army of fecal-smearing killer monkeys.

[Harker]

17. Why do they hate America?

That's a serious question.