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[Zangi]

I liked the part in the BBC's version of the WoW story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25310774) where:

At one point during the investigation, so many national security agents were reportedly playing video games that a "deconfliction" group was created to ensure they were not inadvertently spying on one another.

Everyone musta been playing on the same server.

[Mech#4]

I liked the part in the BBC's version of the WoW story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25310774) where:

At one point during the investigation, so many national security agents were reportedly playing video games that a "deconfliction" group was created to ensure they were not inadvertently spying on one another.

Everyone musta been playing on the same server.

Is this a "Who watches the watchmen" situation? 

[MaximumZero]

I liked the part in the BBC's version of the WoW story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25310774) where:

At one point during the investigation, so many national security agents were reportedly playing video games that a "deconfliction" group was created to ensure they were not inadvertently spying on one another.

Everyone musta been playing on the same server.

Is this a "Who watches the watchmen" situation? 

Obviously, Blizzard does.

[misko27]

I liked the part in the BBC's version of the WoW story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25310774) where:

At one point during the investigation, so many national security agents were reportedly playing video games that a "deconfliction" group was created to ensure they were not inadvertently spying on one another.

Everyone musta been playing on the same server.

Is this a "Who watches the watchmen" situation? 

Obviously, Blizzard does.

And who watches the Blizzard? The NSA. And who watches them? Us now.

So, because of this new leak, Gamers are now watching the NSA watching Blizzard watching the NSA watching other NSA watching Gamers.

[Another]

In the news:
Sci-fi author Charles Stross cancels writing Trilogy: the NSA is already doing it.

Charles Stross has announced that there won't be a third book in the Halting State trilogy because reality (in a manner of speaking) has caught up to him too fast. The last straw was apparently the news that the NSA planted spies in networked games like WoW. Stross comments: 'At this point, I'm clutching my head. Halting State wasn't intended to be predictive when I started writing it in 2006. Trouble is, about the only parts that haven't happened yet are Scottish Independence and the use of actual quantum computers for cracking public key encryption (and there's a big fat question mark over the latter -- what else are the NSA up to?)

Together with some people here really wanting the Scottish Independence part to be a fulfilled prophesy - that would leave only public key encryption status to guess.

[Vattic]

This latest news of Wow spies makes me think of the Four Lions film. The terrorists use a parody of the Club Penguin game to communicate.

[Morrigi]

In the news:
Sci-fi author Charles Stross cancels writing Trilogy: the NSA is already doing it.

Charles Stross has announced that there won't be a third book in the Halting State trilogy because reality (in a manner of speaking) has caught up to him too fast. The last straw was apparently the news that the NSA planted spies in networked games like WoW. Stross comments: 'At this point, I'm clutching my head. Halting State wasn't intended to be predictive when I started writing it in 2006. Trouble is, about the only parts that haven't happened yet are Scottish Independence and the use of actual quantum computers for cracking public key encryption (and there's a big fat question mark over the latter -- what else are the NSA up to?)

Together with some people here really wanting the Scottish Independence part to be a fulfilled prophesy - that would leave only public key encryption status to guess.

That is quite possible the most hilarious, ominous, and terrifying thing I've ever read. Essentially, "I'm not going to write a fictional story about the thought police because it's no longer fictional."

[MetalSlimeHunt]

While the NSA has some fancy equipment, I doubt they have quantum computers.

[Another]

The question is not whether they have quantum computers or not (there is a published civilian academic research that factored 15 (4 bit number) with essentially quantum Shor's algorithm), but what bit-length the NSA has secretly reached by now with their budget. (With 1024 bit being the minimum practically usable length (and most common) and 4096 - the strongest of widely deployed.)

[lemon10]

Yeah, they probably don't have it yet, if they did their would be signs (including Snowden outing it among other things). That isn't to say that they won't have it for very long (depending of course on how fast QC advances).

[Evil Knievel]

While quantum computation isn't really working yet, Quantum encryption is.

[Sheb]

Snowden may not have access to it. I guess the research arm of the NSA is under even more secrecy than the operational arm.

[Another]

Snowden specifically stated that "modern encryption works" (if the implementation is both done professionally and not bugged on purpose). He didn't say that he was not sure if last generation encryption algorithms are cracked or too weak, he explicitly stated that it isn't so. I think that trusting Snowden on this is more reasonable than excessive paranoia.

I would be greatly surprised if it turns out that NSA is not pouring a river of money and some of the brightest scientists at the task of breaking all encryptions but walking around poor security is their real bread and butter and spreading rumours that no encryption works anyway can only help them at that.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

You know the NSA has sunk to horrible, horrible lows when it takes the spreading of rumors to make the public believe they are not safe.

Hey, man, that's not the NSA's fault. We've been doing that since the 40's.

[Fayrik]

Snowden specifically stated that "modern encryption works" (if the implementation is both done professionally and not bugged on purpose).

I think his words were, or at least, a very elegent rephrasing:
Trust the numbers, not the methods.

In a nutshell, if you're on Windows or Mac, any encryption is going to be breakable by the NSA or GCHQ.
If you're on Linux, then check your security updates and make sure you're only running open source software with a wide developer base.
I vaguely remember reading quoting compromised encryption methods in Debian, so some smaller open source projects could well have weaknesses inserted into them.

That said, that's only as far as I know. And I'd love to know more, but I'm far from being a strong enough programmer to read into exactly what is secure and what isn't.