While the tech industry like to cast aspersions about the FBI and how idiotic they are, I think this perception is wrong. I don't think they could possibly have access to the resources they do and be stupid. They may not always understand fully the technology they're working with, but I'm quite sure there are resources within their reach that would quickly set them straight where required. I'm sure at the very least they could create a GUI interface using Visual Basic to track their IP address.
> 2). The FBI is malicious and lying...
I'd like to believe they're neither but the more time goes on, the more my goodwill towards them fades... and while they're not the NSA, the doubt the NSA has cast on Government Agencies has tainted that with the "guilty by association."
I can't believe they're incompetent, I do believe they (largely) do what they do with good intent, I think their strategy is short sighted.
That leaves me asking the question: Have they lost sight of the future repercussions of the actions they take today or are they actively considering the future repercussions when making policy today?
If they're actively considering the future repercussions of policies they're making today, that is the greater cause for concern because they're actively making policy that ensures the state's ability to monitor (and in effect, censor) the future population - counter to the first and fourth amendments.
> While the tech industry like to cast aspersions about the FBI and how idiotic they are, I think this perception is wrong. I don't think they could possibly have access to the resources they do and be stupid.
I responded to an FBI call for recruits to staff up their cybercrime divisions after 9/11, and was in their recruitment pipeline for two and a half years.
Based on my experiences during that period, I have no problem believing that they are stupid.
>I responded to an FBI call for recruits ... and was in their recruitment pipeline for two and a half years.
Dude! Just nine more months and they would have completed your SSBI and you could have been forwarded to the next stage!
God, it's like you don't want to put your life on hold for multiple years while an impersonal bureaucracy methodically sorts through your entire personal history.
Right. So if there is a backdoor, they won't commit the code to a repo, but write it from scratch every time FBI calls them.
Yes, very realistic.
From that we learn two things, both bad and which tells us not to listen to or work with FBI if possible:
1) FBI is stupid and doesn't know how these things work
2) FBI is malicious and is lying