The attacker wore the glasses to record video as he rode a bicycle through the French Quarter during a trip prior to the Bourbon Street attack, the FBI said Sunday. The glasses were not recording during the actual incident.
It literally just made it easier to pinpoint/digital fingerprint him, technically, because he’s the unusual device in a sea of normal devices.
This is like how network security monitoring uses heuristics to look for unusual patterns and then alerts an admin.
These guys really do think they’re in a spy movie, don’t they? Except they actually know nothing about modern spycraft, which requires a deep technical knowledge of computing/networks to be able to hide your digital tracks.
But I’m guessing using a phone wouldn’t have either.
I’ve never been to the French Quarter, but based on some of the other extremely well-trafficked places in the country I’ve been to like Times Square in New York or Chinatown in San Francisco, if he was riding around on a bike with a GoPro strapped to his helmet, the most that would have happened is people would have thought, “look at the weirdo with the GoPro.” It’s just not suspicious to have a camera at a place where there are tons of people. It’s not even especially suspicious to do weird shit with a camera where there are tons of people. Or to look weird yourself.
Wtf? No. People film in these tourist streets all the time. Nobody sane would think someone taking a video there is a terrorist. If anything, they’d think YouTube or tiktok or Instagram.
And god help us if every brown-skinned YouTuber filming b-roll on a public street gets called a terrorist.
That was really super smart of him because people would definitely notice someone with their phone out taking video in the French Quarter.
Certainly worth the $300+.
But then I guess bicycle safety first…
It literally just made it easier to pinpoint/digital fingerprint him, technically, because he’s the unusual device in a sea of normal devices.
This is like how network security monitoring uses heuristics to look for unusual patterns and then alerts an admin.
These guys really do think they’re in a spy movie, don’t they? Except they actually know nothing about modern spycraft, which requires a deep technical knowledge of computing/networks to be able to hide your digital tracks.
Those network anomaly detections dont alert admins. And if they do, its a sea of alerts that humans won’t see.
Anomaly detection just harms people because at-risk folks who protect themselves get locked out from services they need access to.
I didn’t think he intended to get away with it.
Obviously it didn’t flag him in advance, so respectfully, tell me again how effective modern spycraft is.
But I’m guessing using a phone wouldn’t have either.
I’ve never been to the French Quarter, but based on some of the other extremely well-trafficked places in the country I’ve been to like Times Square in New York or Chinatown in San Francisco, if he was riding around on a bike with a GoPro strapped to his helmet, the most that would have happened is people would have thought, “look at the weirdo with the GoPro.” It’s just not suspicious to have a camera at a place where there are tons of people. It’s not even especially suspicious to do weird shit with a camera where there are tons of people. Or to look weird yourself.
Wtf? No. People film in these tourist streets all the time. Nobody sane would think someone taking a video there is a terrorist. If anything, they’d think YouTube or tiktok or Instagram.
And god help us if every brown-skinned YouTuber filming b-roll on a public street gets called a terrorist.
I don’t know how I could have been more obviously sarcastic.
By appending “/s”