> The much more logical explanation is someone approached a low level employee at the MEAF who turned over a USB stick with the governments org charts and payroll records in exchange for their kids getting a full ride to a prestigious foreign university.

If there are spies in foreign countries going around offering life-changing sums of money for USB sticks, which people are accepting

is it not also plausible that folks at google/samsung/apple/aws/cloudflare/microsoft are getting offered life-changing sums of money for leaving their work-from-home laptop unattended for 5 minutes?

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AnthonyMouse 6 months ago | parent | next [-]

This is the thing that has always concerned me about Cloudflare. The structure of their operation is "we do a MITM on most of the encryption on the internet". Even if that doesn't make you immediately suspicious that it was set up as a spying operation on purpose (compare "encryption added/removed here" Snowden slide), it makes them a massive state espionage target. Do they really have the ability to resist that level of persistent targeting from every country in the world?

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scripturial 6 months ago | parent [-]

Cloudflare is a US company right? One assumes it’s controlled (if not directly, then indirectly) by US intelligence interests. That would protect it from non US intelligence influence would it not?

	▲	AnthonyMouse 6 months ago \| parent [-]
		Does the US intelligence apparatus protect its networks with some kind of theurgy preventing the government of Russia or Iran from finding any 0-day before they do from time to time, and have a source of infallible humans immune to bribery or extortion?

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heavyset_go 6 months ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes, this happens. Industrial espionage is popular.

From what I've seen with bribes, it doesn't even take life-changing amounts of money.

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bawolff 6 months ago | parent [-]

I imagine in a country like Iran where there is a sizable minority that hates the regime, someone might have done it for free.

	▲	chrz 6 months ago \| parent [-]
		Imagine all countries

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im3w1l 6 months ago | parent | prev [-]

> google/samsung/apple/aws/cloudflare/microsoft

One thing to keep in mind is those people are already paid quite well. What life can you offer them that they don't already have? Blackmail is a likelier angle.

	▲	heavyset_go 6 months ago \| parent [-]
		You'd be surprised. We had a cop making over $250k/year extorting people for $20 bribes here. It isn't always about the money.