Articles about the NSA
“New Snowden Leak Reveals the NSA Planted Agents inside ‘World of Warcraft’,” Paul Tassi, Forbes
“New Snowden Leak Reveals the NSA Planted Agents inside ‘World of Warcraft’,” Paul Tassi, Forbes
The NSA planted agents inside online video games for surveillance in their fight against terrorism. Follows the trend of the NSA doing ridiculous surveillance with no tangible results. Tassi argues that the NSA overextends its resources on ridiculous and ultimately fruitless endeavors.
“Keep Spying on Foreigners, NSA,” Eric Posner, Slate
This article argues in favor of NSA surveillance of other countries, this article argues that the NSA should continue spying on other countries because we have no reason not to. He says that the U.S. has an edge in surveillance and we should try to keep it.
On the first article: When I first saw the title for this article I will admit that I thought I was reading The Onion. The NSA is spying on a bunch of thirteen-year-olds. I was unaware that demographic was a primary threat to national security. But a few Google searches proved me wrong: many articles across the internet mention this. According to the NSA “Terrorists use online games – but perhaps not for their amusement,” it says. “They are suspected of using them to communicate secretly and to transfer funds.” Oh. Another good reason to keep your kids off the computer, eh? This whole thing seems kind of ridiculous to me. The amount of time and manpower it would require to infiltrate these games, find the terrorists, and stop them seems excessive. The article mentions that the NSA has tried to recruit other players, but lets be honest, a 13 year old boy would not react well if he was asked to assist the NSA in spying on terrorists on his favorite video game. Either he would say "**** off, ******!" or he would think he's a secret agent or something. In any case, this does not seem like a good way to spend taxpayer money. While the released document says “Al-Qaida terrorist target selectors and … have been found associated with Xbox Live, Second Life, World of Warcraft, and other GVEs [Games and Virtual Environments],” the document says. “Other targets include Chinese hackers, an Iranian nuclear scientist, Hizballah, and Hamas members.” I'm not so sure that their activities online are a major threat to our national security.
On the first article: When I first saw the title for this article I will admit that I thought I was reading The Onion. The NSA is spying on a bunch of thirteen-year-olds. I was unaware that demographic was a primary threat to national security. But a few Google searches proved me wrong: many articles across the internet mention this. According to the NSA “Terrorists use online games – but perhaps not for their amusement,” it says. “They are suspected of using them to communicate secretly and to transfer funds.” Oh. Another good reason to keep your kids off the computer, eh? This whole thing seems kind of ridiculous to me. The amount of time and manpower it would require to infiltrate these games, find the terrorists, and stop them seems excessive. The article mentions that the NSA has tried to recruit other players, but lets be honest, a 13 year old boy would not react well if he was asked to assist the NSA in spying on terrorists on his favorite video game. Either he would say "**** off, ******!" or he would think he's a secret agent or something. In any case, this does not seem like a good way to spend taxpayer money. While the released document says “Al-Qaida terrorist target selectors and … have been found associated with Xbox Live, Second Life, World of Warcraft, and other GVEs [Games and Virtual Environments],” the document says. “Other targets include Chinese hackers, an Iranian nuclear scientist, Hizballah, and Hamas members.” I'm not so sure that their activities online are a major threat to our national security.
If it were somehow revealed that terrorists or other nefarious dudes (/sarcasm) were communicating via networked gaming, they might have something. I mean, maybe violent criminals are using fantasy games to practice their aim? There is actually some literature to the effect that video games often lead to positive outcomes when those boys grow up to be soldiers (see this; sorry, can't embed...http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregvoakes/2012/05/30/how-do-video-games-and-modern-military-influence-each-other/). So then does that make this a reason to snoop on WoW players? If so, why? If not, why not?
ReplyDeleteOn WoW players? Perhaps not. on Battlefield 4 players who blow up modern helicopters and shot enemy soldiers with modern battle rifles? I think so. While I do not believe that video games are a major influence on children (in terms of violence etc.), there is still an influence. Speaking theoretically, I do not think a terrorist cell would use MMORPG's (Massive Multi-player Online Role playing Games) to communicate. As we have seen, it is very easy for an agency like the NSA to spy and intercept player conversations, and if that terrorist cell was planning something nefarious, they probably would not want to chance being caught, when a HAM radio is just as effective.
DeleteShoot*
DeleteI am not one who spends any time playing video games. I've never owned a single one, so I think I must be missing something. I firmly believe that although we'd like to think the government is stupid, there must be some good coming from their work. However, I agree with you that this does not seem like a good use of resources. In an article posted yesterday (http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/09/nsa-spying-world-of-warcraft-xbox-live/), it says that Second Life company representatives met with the NSA in 2007. If people are really uncomfortable gaming with NSA agents, they should take it up with the gaming companies. Until then, I assume Second Life and World of Warcraft are profiting from their ties with the American government.
ReplyDeleteI actually read that Blizzard (the company that makes World of Warcraft) said that did not know that there were NSA agents playing their games. It would be interesting if that had gone to one company and not another.
DeleteWhen Tassi mentions that "the document also shows that the NSA tried to recruit gamers to help with the project..." I was astonished. It is ridiculous that not only are secret agents sitting down and playing video games to catch terrorists, but now they are asking 12 year-old kids to help with their search. I personally think that maybe the leaders of such organizations like Al-Qaida would be too busy to play video games. This just doesn't make sense. You mentioned the possible responses a kid would say to the agents, and they are absolutely true. They wouldn't take these "agents" seriously either and would think it was some big joke. The NSA wrote in 2008 that terrorists could be hiding in plain sight, but every study that the NSA did to try and prove this has come back with no significant results. Not coincidental at all.
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