ups... wrong list.... 2018-04-01 13:39 GMT+03:00 Yuriy Gorlichenko <[email protected]>:
> Товарищ подполковник! Алексей Балашов нас выдал!!!! > > > 2018-04-01 7:53 GMT+03:00 Eric Viel <[email protected]>: > >> Good one!!!! Made me really laugh >> >> Le dim. 1 avr. 2018 00:44, Alex Balashov <[email protected]> a >> écrit : >> >>> (Filed by the Geostrategic Open Source Alliance.) >>> >>> ATLANTA, GA (1 April 2018)--In a twist of events that has shocked the >>> global >>> technical community, the well-known open-source VoIP professional Alex >>> Balashov >>> has revealed himself to be a deep cover intelligence operative of the GRU >>> (Main Intelligence Directorate of the military of the Russian >>> Federation) and >>> the FSB (the Federal Security Bureau, the successor agency to the >>> Soviet-era >>> KGB). >>> >>> Balashov was reported to be seeking US political asylum and immunity from >>> prosecution in return for an exposé of the ways in which the Russian >>> foreign >>> intelligence apparatus has sought to influence the direction of the >>> open-source >>> communications project "Kamailio", widely used in telecommunications >>> carrier, >>> service provider and enterprise environments to deliver high-scalability >>> routing services and other SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) platform >>> building >>> blocks. >>> >>> In connection with these sensitive ongoing negotiations, Balashov was >>> debriefed >>> on behalf of the US Government by Fred Posner of The Palner Group, a >>> counterintelligence think tank and security consulting firm based in >>> Gainesville, Florida. This debriefing was coordinated with the German BND >>> (Bundesnachrichtendienst) agency and other agencies representing security >>> cooperation partners of the European Union and NATO. >>> >>> GOSA have been able to obtain exclusive excerpts from the portions of >>> this >>> interview not deemed top secret: >>> >>> >>> POSNER: Please state your full name, age, place of birth, physical >>> characteristics, serial number and any other relevant professional asset >>> identification markers. >>> >>> BALASHOV: [redacted] >>> >>> POSNER: You have made the claim that Kamailio has been infiltrated by >>> Russian >>> spy agencies. Given that it's an open-source project, that's a bold and >>> provocative claim. Where's the evidence? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Infiltration is perhaps strong word from spy novels. Reality >>> is less >>> thrilling. As you are knowing from controversy about election of our >>> Donald, >>> covert global influence today is mainly question of soft power. >>> >>> POSNER: Is there an obvious way in which this applies to the Kamailio >>> project >>> you can show us? I remind you that you have staked your personal freedom >>> on >>> this issue. >>> >>> BALASHOV: Influence is delicate matter. Da, of course there are some >>> superficial indications... >>> >>> POSNER: Such as? >>> >>> BALASHOV: For example module to support language Squirrel. What is >>> Squirrel? >>> Who uses it? If you take a look at code is a bit complicated, da? What >>> does it >>> do? >>> >>> POSNER: It is a bit complicated, But I'm not convinced. Sell me. >>> >>> BALASHOV: It was in fact committed to GitHub by former Eastern Bloc >>> personality, yes? Very complicated code for unknown mystery language >>> support >>> from Eastern Europe... >>> >>> POSNER: Yes, from the main developer and leader of the project. >>> >>> BALASHOV: Hmm. >>> >>> POSNER: What else? >>> >>> BALASHOV: There is a Ukranian [redacted] who is in charge of many SIP >>> captures >>> with system which diverts them to central database, yes? Something with >>> name >>> from ancient Greek troubadour or myths maybe? >>> >>> POSNER: We'll have to look into that. >>> >>> BALASHOV: Kamailio World is held every year in East Berlin. Every year >>> back to >>> Berlin. >>> >>> POSNER: So what? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Where do most guests of it spend their night? >>> >>> POSNER: [audible crack of pistol whip] This is not a quiz show! I ask the >>> questions here. >>> >>> BALASHOV: Yes, yes, okay, they are at the Park Inn at Alexanderplatz. >>> >>> POSNER: And? >>> >>> BALASHOV: The history of this hotel in East German times and Stasi >>> presence >>> there... >>> >>> POSNER: That aspect of history is well-known. >>> >>> BALASHOV: Da... then is clear. >>> >>> POSNER: What are the strategic goals of Russia with regard to open source >>> communication infrastructure? >>> >>> BALASHOV: From news lately can be seen that is soft power leveraging and >>> economic sabotage. >>> >>> POSNER: Economic sabotage? How will they achieve that with open source? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Again is question of delicate influence in small ways. This is >>> not >>> time of Arab dignitaries visiting KGB hotels in Moscow in 1970s or this >>> kind of >>> naked and obvious trick. >>> >>> POSNER: [raises pistol] You are here to provide specifics. >>> >>> BALASHOV: Yes yes, okay. Well, I am not policy architect at Khoroshovskoe >>> Shosse, but general point of view with colleagues is that best approach >>> to >>> Western countries is to encourage kind of "boondoggles" [air quotes] >>> which >>> consume large economic resources with very little benefit. >>> >>> POSNER: Does Russia create boondoggles in America? >>> >>> BALASHOV: No no. We don't have this level of direct influence to create >>> per se. >>> You can see from recent activities of Internet Research Agency for >>> example that >>> the successful approach is the one which will amplify or grow existing >>> boondoggles which lead to kind of systemic dysfunction, through for >>> example >>> injection of kind of "memes" [air quote gesture] and "trolls" [air quote >>> gesture]. >>> >>> POSNER: Where has Russia been successful at this specifically as it >>> relates to >>> the Kamailio, the VoIP industry, and real-time communications? >>> >>> BALASHOV: The GRU are very successful at disinformation campaign to >>> convince >>> business executives about cloud things. They are always listening to our >>> "thought leadership" [air quote gesture] to move to cloud, mostly Amazon >>> Web >>> Services, which is great for us since is worst possible approach. At >>> industry >>> events our people are always pushing very much cloud cloud cloud, you >>> know, >>> like a stampede of rhinoceroses to cloud, don't miss out on cloud! Don't >>> be >>> left on the ground, fly away to cloud! We have great podcas-- >>> >>> POSNER: --stop. But there is a legitimate value proposition for service >>> providers in moving to the cloud, isn't there? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Yes, for some maybe, but for example AWS is platform not >>> designed at >>> all for telecom, is kind of Node.js and Ruby on Rails hosting service. >>> >>> POSNER: Where is the economic sabotage? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Well they are spending one month $30,000 to Amazon, next month >>> $35,000, next month $40,000, always bigger instances, bigger, bigger, to >>> handle >>> even very basic work. Official sexy seduction mythology is you can fire >>> all the >>> system admins and no longer replace hard drives at 3 AM and forget all >>> this >>> messing with hardware. >>> >>> Is very hard to resist for big business leaders who follow classical >>> Western >>> management consulting sermon from 90s about "divest yourself of non-core >>> competencies" [air quote gesture]. You know, it is same advice they come >>> to >>> give to us in Gaidar and Yeltsin days. From my memory was not working >>> out well >>> until First Marshal Putin took different approach... >>> >>> POSNER: Let's stay focused. Surely companies can run the numbers for >>> themselves >>> and see if it makes sense for them? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Maybe, but where we have the success is in the exploit of the >>> fear of >>> missing out, I think is called "FOMO" [air quote gesture] nowadays. >>> Everyone is >>> moving to cloud, don't get left behind, even if unit economics of it are >>> disaster for your product and your company. Have you heard about the >>> cloud? >>> It's future! >>> >>> POSNER: And this has been successful? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Hard to measure but for example there is major increase in >>> mailing >>> list posts about putting Kamailio in Amazon EC2, EC2, endless EC2 from >>> people >>> for whom it is obviously wrong thing. Lots of wheels spinnink, spinnik, >>> making >>> fire and sparks, light and heat going into cold, empty outer space, to >>> keep warm >>> our GLONASS satellites. But where is result? All cost increase. And >>> still the >>> $3000/mo instance does not process small amount of packets that is >>> nothing for >>> bare metal server. >>> >>> Meanwhile spendink, spendink, solvink big amounts of kind of fake >>> problems... I >>> heard this expression once in Atlanta, "keep up with Jones" [air quote >>> gesture]. I don't know who is Jones but everyone agrees is very >>> important to >>> keep up with h-- >>> >>> POSNER: --back up. Fake problems? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Maybe is better word: unnecessary problems that come from way >>> AWS >>> inside workings. Stupid network constraints, stupid puzzles for >>> puzzle-solvers. >>> What is American term, "eager beaver" [air quote gesture]? >>> >>> POSNER: Apart from tying up resources, how does this enthusiasm for AWS >>> help >>> Russia? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Well it should be obvious that having whole industry pay huge >>> premium >>> price to centralise their infrastructure at one entity is both >>> economically >>> wasteful and precarious. Fragile and expensive setup is like our Soviet >>> economy >>> at end of eighties. Also havink resemblance to old-times mainframe >>> computing is >>> top secret irony nobody sees. >>> >>> POSNER: Where else is Russia seeding economically harmful memes? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Other big initiative is encourage huge overinvestment in WebRTC >>> because is supposedly future of real-time communications. >>> >>> POSNER: But WebRTC is real. >>> >>> BALASHOV: Da, of course, sometimes workink fine, but eats up big >>> engineering >>> capital and talent fighting always browser bugs and incompatible >>> implementations and always changink changink changink. Meanwhile who is >>> caring >>> for fundamental SIP services? >>> >>> POSNER: And this is a form of economic sabotage? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Of course is sabotage. If you can make much of a sector of >>> economy to >>> obsess always about some toy and create kind of echo chamber of >>> "visionary" >>> [air quote gesture] commentary about it it is negative for GDP and >>> innovation. >>> >>> "Vision" has shown the big success for us; is perfect concept in hand of >>> intelligence agency because nobody is knowing what it is but everyone so >>> desperate to show they have it. >>> >>> POSNER: So a large-scale movement of VoIP service providers to the cloud >>> and >>> big development around WebRTC represent Russian attempts at sabotage of >>> the >>> Western real-time communications industry? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Well again, these tendencies are existing before. It is more >>> question >>> of amplifying and boosting and promoting them so many actors are >>> distracted >>> from important things. American business guys are very vulnerable to it; >>> every >>> time they are asking, "this does not seem to be worth it for us?", >>> always they >>> hear from friends at country club, "you need more bold vision and company >>> culture of innovation, my friend". >>> >>> We have learned after some years and applying KGB psychology training to >>> exploit their big personal insecurities about many things. For example >>> they see >>> competitor have Cloud Business Analytics, they too must have now Cloud >>> Business >>> Analytics, not for any reason, just fear, insecurity, the angst about not >>> having enough "Big Data" [air quote gesture]. >>> >>> POSNER: What else? >>> >>> BALASHOV: In recent years can be found thought leadership to remove >>> direct >>> sales because is inefficient, too high customer acquisition cost and so >>> forth. >>> Always now resellers, channel partners this and master agents that. >>> Common >>> sense shows industry cannot support chain with big depth of reseller of >>> reseller of reseller with everyone wanting to be reseller and nobody >>> selling >>> actual products to the real people. >>> >>> POSNER: That's not new to telecom. >>> >>> BALASHOV: No, no, but now new twist! They are now having everything "as a >>> service" [air quote gesture], platform-aaS, infrastructure-aaS... >>> >>> POSNER: Okay? >>> >>> BALASHOV: But also now infrastructure management-as-a-service and kind >>> of meta >>> approach, management-of-management-of-platform-aaS. Resellers of resale >>> platforms of platforms of platforms. >>> >>> Maybe not quite clear, but this is special recursive sense of humour >>> tradition >>> in Russia. Put endless things inside things inside things like matryoshka >>> doll. Again-- >>> >>> POSNER: --matryoshka? Like the Russian nesting doll? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Yes yes, nesting doll. >>> >>> As I was saying key point is lots of "activity and buzz" [air quote >>> gesture] >>> which is parasitism by another name. Lots of energy and enthusiasm, big >>> banners, hype from UC press, LinkedIn Pulse CTO insights, cheerleadink, >>> but >>> where is result? >>> >>> POSNER: How is this all tied to Kamailio? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Some of it is not directly tied. It is more idea that Kamailio >>> is >>> tool for executing "big ideas" [air quote gesture] and "platform plays" >>> [air >>> quote gesture]. >>> >>> When you are reading mailing list post like, "how to scale up with >>> Kamailio to >>> deliver cloud WebRTC solutions for the enterprise?" and wonder with >>> yourself >>> "from where this small guy got such 'big ideas'?" is often result of >>> Russian-sponsored so-called thought leadership. Who is he? He does not >>> have >>> enterprise! >>> >>> POSNER: What's wrong with that question? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Well from our point of view nothing; great question, bold and >>> inspiring! We are encouraging them always to go build grandiose >>> megalomania >>> ideas, telling to them, yes, "boil the ocean", "be disruptor 2.0", etc. >>> Have >>> you seen ITEXPO? Ideally also raising some venture capital to erase >>> value from >>> fund limited partners portfolio, like pension funds, university >>> endowments. >>> >>> Although sometimes we feel sorry, knowink they will not meet the >>> success, and >>> almost have heart to tell them is just trollink, but our government is >>> clear >>> about goal: work hard every day to suck money out of American economy. >>> >>> POSNER: So it is in Russia's interest to see big ideas funded in America? >>> >>> BALASHOV: Oh yes yes! Bigger is better! First mover advantage and network >>> effect, go big or go home trailblazink! On every time someone gets the >>> Series A >>> for "completely transforming the way you do the business with UCaaS" >>> [air quote >>> gesture] or like "a new kind of next-gen VoIP peering" [air quote >>> gesture] we >>> are having another champagne bottle at the headquarters. >>> >>> POSNER: This does not really sound like traditional intelligence work. >>> >>> BALASHOV: Is not. We are livink in Internet cultural moment, is about >>> memes, >>> engineering perceptions and mass behaviour, new kind of value creation. >>> Likewise destruction. >>> >>> POSNER: We will consider your asylum application in detail. In the >>> meantime, >>> you will be detained at [redacted] as before. >>> >>> BALASHOV: This is famous American tradition of "customer service"? >>> >>> POSNER: We call it "customer success" nowadays. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Kamailio (SER) - Users Mailing List >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.kamailio.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sr-users >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Kamailio (SER) - Users Mailing List >> [email protected] >> https://lists.kamailio.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sr-users >> >> >
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