NSA Cookies – Bumbling Stupidity?
The announcement that the NSA used persistent cookies on their web site reminds me of a phrase I saw on in a worker’s cubicle at Alcoa many years ago, “Intelligence, even if artificial, is preferable to stupidity, no matter how genuine.”
Sounds like we have a case of bumbling stupidity here, not a calculated effort to spy on us all.
But, of course, we could take the popular position that the NSA is a subversive organization trying to undermine the populace. But if we take that position, we must acknowledge the Cookie Monster is an NSA undercover operative.
“I am shocked, shocked, shocked to find gambling at this establishement”
“Your winnings, sir”
CNN (and others) are reporting on this as a significant privacy violation while at the same time offering up their own persistant cookies…
Yep! Very stupid of the NSA to illegally use persistent cookies. I’d just like to know if it was a conscious violation or just some dumb web designer who wasn’t smart enough to ask if it was okay. I suspect the latter. Still very embarrassing and inept.
Why would a malicious individual go to the NSA’s website in the first place?
Second, shouldn’t a spy be smart enough to delete the cookies after the visiting the NSA site?
I am more concered with Google using cookies than the NSA.
Dec 31 2035 is the 32-bit UNIX rollover date. At one time, that was the latest date for a cookie most web servers supported. How do we know this date was not a default date for cookies on the NSA’s webserver? I have seen lots of cookies in my browser with a 2035 expiration.
I think this is much ado about nothing.
By the way, the cookie on my browser with the latest expiration (2074, I think I’ll be dead by then) was put there by Sun.