NSA’s Zero Day Exploits: Paying $800 mn. to Hackers so they Can Spy on You

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/02/exploits-paying-hackers.html

NSA’s Zero Day Exploits: Paying $800 mn. to Hackers so they Can Spy on You
By Juan Cole | Feb. 7, 2014
(By Pratap Chatterjee via Tomdispatch)

Imagine that you could wander unseen through a city, sneaking into houses and offices of your choosing at any time, day or night. Imagine that, once inside, you could observe everything happening, unnoticed by others — from the combinations used to secure bank safes to the clandestine rendezvous of lovers. Imagine also that you have the ability to silently record everybody’s actions, whether they are at work or play without leaving a trace. Such omniscience could, of course, make you rich, but perhaps more important, it could make you very powerful.

That scenario out of some futuristic sci-fi novel is, in fact, almost reality right now. After all, globalization and the Internet have connected all our lives in a single, seamless virtual city where everything is accessible at the tap of a finger. We store our money in online vaults; we conduct most of our conversations and often get from place to place with the help of our mobile devices. Almost everything that we do in the digital realm is recorded and lives on forever in a computer memory that, with the right software and the correct passwords, can be accessed by others, whether you want them to or not.

Now — one more moment of imagining — what if every one of your transactions in that world was infiltrated? What if the government had paid developers to put trapdoors and secret passages into the structures that are being built in this new digital world to connect all of us all the time? What if they had locksmiths on call to help create master keys for all the rooms? And what if they could pay bounty hunters to stalk us and build profiles of our lives and secrets to use against us?

Well, check your imagination at the door, because this is indeed the brave new dystopian world that the U.S. government is building, according to the latest revelations from the treasure trove of documents released by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

[bemildred]

1. As usual, the cops create most of the crime.

Beats the hell out of working.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Oil dollars converted .

[Laelth]

3. Yes. The "zero day exploits" matter.

We paid a lot to develop them, and our security agencies are rather ticked that someone may have given away all that research. No evidence has yet surfaced showing that Snowden, or anyone else, has given away any of this research, but we are right to be concerned if, for no other reason, losing this research would represent a massive waste of resources.

-Laelth