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NSA operation ORCHESTRA: Annual Status Report

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Privacy, surveillance & cybercrimeSecurity & hackingLinux & open-source ecosystems

What it is

Poul-Henning Kamp's FOSDEM 2014 talk is a hypothetical account of how an intelligence agency such as the NSA would sabotage open source software, standards and online discussion. It covers Skype's history, OpenSSL and psyops against standards.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN returned to it repeatedly, especially after Heartbleed, as an eye-opening argument about subverting open source and standards.

  • 9 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2019

What HN commenters said

  1. “I'd suggest watching the whole thing.”

    Kamp's talk on OpenSSL and NSA sabotage, worth watching whole

    ensmotko, 2014-04 · Strong recommendation · in “"OpenSSL has exploit mitigation countermeasures to make sure it's exploitable"”

  2. “The entire talk is an eye opener.”

    Kamp on how an agency would sabotage software and standards

    TacticalCoder, 2014-04 · Strong recommendation · in “"OpenSSL has exploit mitigation countermeasures to make sure it's exploitable"”

  3. “do listen to the FreeBSD developer's talk on NSA' ORCHESTRA operation”

    Talk on subverting open source projects

    higherpurpose, 2014-04 · Recommendation · in “Julian Assange: "Debian Is Owned By The NSA"”

  4. “Also worth watching is his FOSDEM talk where he was calling for this before news of Heartbleed broke.”

    Kamp's talk calling for OpenSSL's replacement before Heartbleed

    notdonspaulding, 2014-04 · Recommendation · in “PHK: OpenSSL must die, for it will never get any better.”

  5. “Everyone who has more interest on why OpenSSL is a catastrophe should watch operation ORCHESTRA”

    Explains why OpenSSL is considered a catastrophe

    romanovcode, 2014-04 · Recommendation · in “IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, others pledge $3.6 million to fund OpenSSL”

  6. “This talk was an interesting thought experiment by PhK of FreeBSD on how if he were tasked by some agency to sabotage open source projects and standards”

    Thought experiment on how to sabotage open source projects and standards

    hackermailman, 2018-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”

  7. “Watch this talk from FOSDEM '14 by Poul-Henning Kamp”

    Kamp's FOSDEM talk on disinformation and FUD, predating Heartbleed

    no_identd, 2018-09 · Recommendation · in “Microwave Weapons Are Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: poul-henning kamp, nsa, openssl, surveillance, standards, fosdem

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