Thread by @Dry_Observer

Even if it's not connected, putting all of this on accessible computers whether at Cambridge Analytica or various #botnets was *beyond* foolish.

Signed confessions, video documentation, emails discussing in graphic detail *pale* compared to what they have.

It's one thing to have mountains of hard evidence re: crimes.

But the computers can literally detail every minute detail & action the felonies, & literally record the whole thing.

It's like preserving not just a recording of the crime, but the whole crime itself, in amber.

It's not just Cambridge Analytica's servers or whatever they were using for a supercomputer. #Botnets consist of thousands or even millions of computers, & you don't *own* them.

You're taking them over.

You don't own the servers you're networking over.

Literally *millions* of points of vulnerability.

And in practice, you've recorded the entire crime - in Cambridge Analytica's case, apparently 10s of millions of acts of wire fraud, etc - in digital form forever.

I doubt it was purged before it was seized.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

I doubt the #botnets *could* be effectively purged before they were seized, simply because there's far too many that aren't remotely under your direct physical control.

*Someone* pulled a plug & stuck a hard drive in the closet.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov, @ericgarland, @counterchekist

Actually, probably *thousands* of someones.

Worse, servers that got mothballed before fully purging the last year's worth of logfiles.

If you want data, find your data chokepoints & see where it's still quite available.

The @FBI/@NSAGov *know* this.

But reap this data in conjunction w/crimes uncovered w/out exposing intel sources & methods?

Again, with the computers, you've practically stopped time & frozen the entire crime itself, to be displayed at your leisure in the #RICO trial.
cc: @FBI/@NSAGov

Everything about the #botnet/#kompromat guys going down terrify everyone.

The *real* Cohen analogy?

Once you could simply seize all those voice recordings/communications/records because of foolish public pronouncements - it's another staggering source of data.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

When I talk about The Plan, one piece obviously was all of these inept actors self-assembling their Participatory Panopticon & handing it to law enforcement/CI.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

But I've also assumed we would do mass data forensics on increasingly vast data sets as a given w/the emergence of quantum & post-zetascale supercomputing.

Given I've been sitting what appear to breakthroughs along those lines, it was far from academic.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

Human enhancement, AI & other advancements amplifying effective human intelligence & resources necessitated an exponentially more potent means of dealing with serious threats.

Obviously I've been hinting at those for the last 15 years or so.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

So when I get excited over things like your #planespotting work showing the practice of changing plane IDs or @ericgarland discussing invisible backlinking to influence search algorithms...
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

These are exactly the data points you would review in quantum/zetascale data forensics.

Not by themselves, but superimposed against that larger set of databases.

Or against individual ones.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

Another example?

#Botnets would show distinct changes in the operation of individual computers but also changes at scale in masses of them.

Always on, strange operating hours, changes in sites located.

Having numerous botnets to reference would tell you more.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

So in addition to scanning in real time, why not go back and see what you can find?

Remember, it's one thing for a criminal to hide from a threat s/he doesn't know exists.

Quite another to have irretrievable evidence they never knew would be reaped.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

There will obviously be differences in how different agencies & governments will handle this, especially once the #KremlinGate investigation is finally over.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

But I've always assumed we'll be reviewing these data sets as a matter of course, not just for law enforcement or for general interest, but as a way of testing the capabilities of radically more advanced supercomputers.
cc: @FBI, @NSAGov

Not all of The Plan, by any means, but another piece.

And a necessary one.