NSA Mission Statement

[Patrice]

Hello everyone,

what do you think of the following mission statement of the NSA:

The ability to understand the secret communications of our foreign adversaries while protecting our own communications - a capability in which the United States leads the world - gives our nation a unique advantage.

What do you especially think if you are not US citizen. I would like to know your opinions.

Best regards,

Patrice

[Paul Wilders]

For the record: this might turn into a political issue - that's not the goal from this board, and thus will not be tollerated.

No offense, Patrice ;).

regards.

paul

[root]

Well, I'm a Citizen of the Republic of the United States of America, and I can tell you it doesn't do much for me.
I can't get too far into this as this could easilly turn political to the max.
Could I ask, why you ask?
I am not trying to be adversarial. You just tweaked my interest. ;)

[root]

Paul just beat me by nanoseconds. ;D

[Paul Wilders]

-{ Quote: " quoting: root link=board=18;threadid=9354;start=0#61265 date=1053294868]
Paul just beat me by nanoseconds. ;D
" }-

Finally! - waited 6 months for this 8).

regards,

paul

[Patrice]

Hi Paul & root,

-{ Quote: " quoting: Forum Admin link=board=18;threadid=9354;start=0#msg61261 date=1053294578]
For the record: this might turn into a political issue - that's not the goal from this board, and thus will not be tollerated.

No offense, Patrice ;).

regards.

paul
" }-

Completely agree to this statement, I don't wanna have a political discussion here! Let's say I'm coming from a country where I have enough political discussions and rights myself! ;) So, I'm fed up with that already. So, let's keep it about security, that's why I was putting this thread into the security issue forum.

Root, why I ask this question? Do you know, what consequences this mission statement has? I'm just talking about your own security (well, or about the security of all non US citizens). This means that they are going to spy on you if you are an interesting target like a business company, a political, a researcher,... This means, they will steal any information of you which might be interesting to them. Do you think this is legal? Or do you really think this is right?

What can one do about it? Well, first of all using encryption software for all your mails and files. Secondly not using fax or phone for very valuable information. Etc. Etc. Do you get the range of this and what it implies?

Best regards,

Patrice

[Finn McCool]

Hi, Patrice.

The statement appears to announce the obvious. Isn't that what every country's intelligence service tries to do--spy on others while protecting its own secrets?

The intelligence services are always going to be a threat to personal security and privacy. And the threat isn't just to people in other countries. They also want to know what their citizens are sending out.

I don't think most of our security precautions will hold up well against an intelligence service that becomes interested in our communications. My hope is that security precautions will at least keep the snooping commercial interests at bay. Good security precautions make it uneconomical for them. I hope. ::)