OK guys, one by one, one step forward! :-)
On 01.04.18 12:39, Yuriy Gorlichenko wrote: > Товарищ подполковник! Алексей Балашов нас выдал!!!! > > > 2018-04-01 7:53 GMT+03:00 Eric Viel <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>>: > > Good one!!!! Made me really laugh > > Le dim. 1 avr. 2018 00:44, Alex Balashov > <[email protected] <mailto:[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] <mailto:[email protected]> > https://lists.kamailio.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sr-users > <https://lists.kamailio.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sr-users> > > > _______________________________________________ > Kamailio (SER) - Users Mailing List > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > https://lists.kamailio.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sr-users > <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 -- Daniel-Constantin Mierla www.twitter.com/miconda -- www.linkedin.com/in/miconda Kamailio Advanced Training - April 16-18, 2018, Berlin - www.asipto.com Kamailio World Conference - May 14-16, 2018 - www.kamailioworld.com
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