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Comment by mmooss | Hacker News Reader

Let's pretend you work for a non-US state intelligence agency. How would you find Hesgeth's personal computer in his office on the public Internet? A genuine thought experiment.

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Write an article that he's likely to be interested in reading, spread the link, then mine the browser data just like every other website.

Literally just @ him on X. These are the moments of strategic ineptitude you hoard zero days for decades to score.

I don't want to derail the conversation too much with this but this is the kind of thing that blows my mind with seeing obscenely wealthy/powerful people like Musk and Trump on social media.

At some level of wealth you reach a point where no one can get to you physically. You're completely physically safe and isolated and can't be hurt. That means that the only way someone can get to you is through communicating with you and making you hurt yourself.

That means that social media is your only weakness. This is how adversaries can affect your plans and goals and disrupt your mind. Yet so many of these people seem so oblivious to this and are as terminally online as your average 4channer or facebook mom.

Does this speak to some sort of weakness in these kinds of people or the addictiveness of social media?

> Does this speak to some sort of weakness in these kinds of people or the addictiveness of social media?

They're online because their followers are online. Social media may be the actual lead pipes to our empire [1].

So yes, they are absolutely weaker than leaders with digital hygiene. But the reason they're there is because the American public is similarly weaker.

[1] https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wi...

> Social media may be the actual lead pipes to our empire [1].

In America, the lead pipes of their empire are the literal lead pipes still in use all over the country.

Sure, I get that there's utility in having an online presence, but these people are wealthy/powerful so they can afford to have someone do that work for them with the public non the wiser.

That wouldn't give that kind of narcissist the same level of satisfaction as they get from the army of sycophants clicking "Like" on their latest hot take.

I think that direct connection is particularly attractive to the right kind of narcissist. Might be the best drug they've ever had.

Rich people that eschew fame are largely ignored and rarely talked about. Just like the local rich person that takes private jets to their family vacations every three months, but drives a fully loaded, but unassuming, Toyota is not going to be noticed next to the one driving a purple Lamborghini.

But there probably is something to be said about people that pursue power or money endlessly. That their insatiable need for more money and power could be seen as proxies for a need for validation, so the need to seek out validation online (and to aggressively lash out at criticism) would be just another manifestation of that.

If you are born poor, then maybe you end up telling tall tales at the bar and falling for every get rich quick scheme out there because you cant imagine being wrong. If you are born on third base because of daddy’s emerald mine or real estate company, then you tell your tall tales to millions of people.

> At some level of wealth you reach a point where no one can get to you physically.

Just want to point out that physical security is never 100%. Someone with enough skill, determination, and resources can always get to you.

Sorry, you think it's impossible to hurt Trump? Are you forgetting the bullet that passed an inch from his brain? A crazy person with a gun can change history in a second, and it would've been a terrible violent occurrence throughout society if it had come to pass.

At his level of wealth it's a choice to be that exposed physically, just as it's a choice to be exposed at that level psychologically is my point.

Someone with Trump's level of wealth could retire to an island and be like Elvis in his later years only dealing through people with intermediaries. They could have the best doctors, the best fitness regime and the best diet, and the best security and hundreds of miles between them and physical threats.

Agreed. As much damage as Trump is causing, I'm guessing that his assassination would increase the chances of an even worse scenario: civil war.

It would be a perfect psyop opportunity (I'm guessing) to trigger Trump's most enthusiastic fans.

Civil war when most people are hooked that much to medias and 60% obese is a really unrealistic development.

I genuinely can’t tell if it would lead to civil war or a collective shrug, Brian Thompson style.

Life is a reality TV show.

There are many, many other possibilities - all the possibilities that almost always happen. How bizarre to limit your options to those two things.

Yep. The CIA uses these same techniques to track foreigners of interest (e.g. Putin's entourage) so we should assume other countries are attempting to use similar techniques on American officials.

I would make Witkoff sit on his ass in hotel for 8 hours while my team one room over wirelessly breaks into his phone and gets into those Signal chats.

https://news.sky.com/story/trumps-fixer-was-made-to-wait-eig...

His personal PC? Send Big Ballz his way to do some upgrades

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5355896/doge-nlrb-elon-...

maybe a free Starlink dish

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/elon-musk-sta...

This assumes that the patsy needs to never discover that his device was compromised.

I'm guessing there are a few scenarios where they could be tortured / blackmailed into compliance, even if it meant that the DoD would know about it in a day or two, and it would still be worth it.

E.g., shortly before a real fight over Taiwan began.

I really, really hope Hegseth gets his OPSEC act together, yesterday.

Once they're in, often professionals will create many forms of hidden access and then remove evidence of the initial breach.

You would just send him a link in a Signal message. His phone number is widely known and he has Signal installed on his desktop computer.

Signal’s protocol secures the message in transit. But their desktop app may or may not have client-side vulnerabilities. And if he clicks a link, you’re out of Signal and into the browser. If the link downloads a file, you’re into the OS.

There is a Signal social engineering vulnerability where the attacker gets people to click a link that links the attacker's device to the target's Signal account.

There is a Signal social engineering vulnerability where you just happen to exist and have a Signal account and the SecDef invites you to what should be classified communications.

I don't know why people think these incompetent buffoons would need 0-day vulnerabilities to get. Trump just tweeted pictures from classified spy satellites. If you want to know a secret of America's right now, you can either purchase it for a small amount out of Trump's bathroom, or just needle him with a "I bet you don't know/have...." and he will tell you whatever you want to know as a "Brag".

At least one of the members of that chat was IN MOSCOW, I think even IN THE KREMLIN at the time.

Several Republican party leaders were in a meeting with Putin in Moscow on July 4th 2018. They aren't TRYING to keep info out of the Kremlin's hands. They are so incompetent they couldn't keep it out of Beijing's hands if they wanted to.

You could locate the traffic to The White House using this triangulation trick: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42780816

Title:”0-click deanonymization attack targeting Signal, Discord, other platforms”

Maybe not 0-click anymore, but still applies if the user browsing the internet.

Would that be illegal or are you simply just using public(?) data available to you?

Compromise the device of one of his contact and send him a juicy link via telegram that renders "Error: Not viewable on mobile" when opened a phone. Bonus points if the link has 0-day malware dropper

> Compromise the device of one of his contact ...

Yes, I should have thought of that old and obvious one. It opens up a universe of possibilities.

Drop a usb stick outside of his house. 100% he'll pick it up and plug it in. 1000% if you brand it with his favorite whiskey.

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