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Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core
NYT ^ | November 12, 2017 | SCOTT SHANE, NICOLE PERLROTH and DAVID E. SANGER

Posted on 11/12/2017 1:46:51 PM PST by maggief

WASHINGTON — Jake Williams awoke last April in an Orlando, Fla., hotel where he was leading a training session. Checking Twitter, the cybersecurity expert was dismayed to discover that he had been thrust into the middle of one of the worst security debacles ever to befall American intelligence.

Mr. Williams had written on his company blog about the Shadow Brokers, a mysterious group that had somehow obtained many of the hacking tools the United States used to spy on other countries. Now the group had replied in an angry screed on Twitter. It identified him — correctly — as a former member of the National Security Agency’s hacking group, Tailored Access Operations, or T.A.O., a job he had not publicly disclosed. Then the Shadow Brokers astonished him by dropping technical details that made clear they knew about highly classified hacking operations that he had conducted.

America’s largest and most secretive intelligence agency had been deeply infiltrated.

(snip)

Fifteen months into a wide-ranging investigation by the agency’s counterintelligence arm, known as Q Group, and the F.B.I., officials still do not know whether the N.S.A. is the victim of a brilliantly executed hack, with Russia as the most likely perpetrator, an insider’s leak, or both. Three employees have been arrested since 2015 for taking classified files, but there is fear that one or more leakers may still be in place. And there is broad agreement that the damage from the Shadow Brokers already far exceeds the harm to American intelligence done by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who fled with four laptops of classified material in 2013.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: deepstate; nsa
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Consider the source.
1 posted on 11/12/2017 1:46:51 PM PST by maggief
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To: maggief

Most of the OP is already out there in info security circles. I will not give the Slimes clicks but what you posted is accurate from what I see and hear.


2 posted on 11/12/2017 1:49:29 PM PST by mad_as_he$$
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To: maggief

Thanks, Obama! Our entire Government was compromised for 8 years. The Awan family sending all our security secrets to Pakistan......I WISH those responsible would be held accountable!


3 posted on 11/12/2017 1:50:06 PM PST by originalbuckeye ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'- George Orwell)
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To: maggief

Awake..

or

Woke?

There’s a difference.

One explores truth while the other fights for ignorance.


4 posted on 11/12/2017 1:51:49 PM PST by Zeneta
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To: originalbuckeye

Yep. Wouldn’t be surprised if the infiltrators were either Chinese or Muslim.


5 posted on 11/12/2017 1:53:23 PM PST by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: originalbuckeye

While true, the lax security goes back to Clinton. Books were written about it.


6 posted on 11/12/2017 1:58:26 PM PST by bigbob (People say believe half of what you see son and none of what you hear - M. Gaye)
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To: Rurudyne

I wouldn’t be surprised if the infiltrators were “white hats” from our own side. These intel agencies are seriously out of control and have been off the U.S. reservation for a long time.


7 posted on 11/12/2017 2:01:11 PM PST by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: maggief

and you thought Obama was working for his Millions


8 posted on 11/12/2017 2:01:20 PM PST by butlerweave
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To: VTenigma

Yep.


9 posted on 11/12/2017 2:05:38 PM PST by maggief
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To: maggief

In the days when we had the CIA for external intelligence activities, and the FBI for internal intelligence activities, to include the background investigation of every applicant to the U.S. military, why was the “NSA’ formed? Who ordered it’s birth? What was “the need” for ANOTHER intelligence office, since the U.S. Army; Navy; Air Force, had offices already established, and worked in conjunction with BOTH the FBI and CIA???

You want to cut the budget, cut out extraneous intelligence services, and furlough the workers.


10 posted on 11/12/2017 2:09:07 PM PST by Terry L Smith
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To: maggief

What the heck do we need the NSA for anyway? You think these clowns are stopping terrorist attacks?

If you do, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.


11 posted on 11/12/2017 2:11:52 PM PST by Fido969 (In!)
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To: maggief

Really? You mean Snowden and Manning didn’t shake them?


12 posted on 11/12/2017 2:12:09 PM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: maggief

I don’t care what happens to the NSA.

They spy on US citizens and that information is used by the Rats for politics.

Disband the NSA.


13 posted on 11/12/2017 2:13:12 PM PST by bkopto
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To: Terry L Smith

wiki: Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II, it was officially formed as the NSA by President Harry S. Truman in 1952.

Q. Who wanted to “splinter the C.I.A. in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds”?


14 posted on 11/12/2017 2:16:40 PM PST by maggief
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To: maggief

If you are in the spy business, then having a company blog seems like a foolish idea.


15 posted on 11/12/2017 2:35:51 PM PST by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: Terry L Smith
NSA is the crypto agency and goes back to WWI. The separate military service do not create and break codes, only NSA does. The separate services got out of the business after all the intel screw ups leading up to Pearl harbor. One service does not talk to another, tending to hoard info other services desperately need, thus a separate Independent collection agency disseminates materiel to all branches.

NSA gatherers, collects and processes information and electronic data. The separate military services are its clients - they do not have the budget, the infrastructure, nor the expertise to do what NSA does. The old way was a disaster.

Seems that the new way isn't working too well these days either, However, a big however, most people do not know that in the old days up until the 1990s FBI clearances were extensive and very thorough, generally costing over one million dollars per applicant, with live interviews. That changed under Bill Clinton when an applicant merely had to supply phone numbers to be called - who was on the other end, well you just have to trust someone; this saved a lot of money and time, plus, it made it easier for Bill to sell secret stuff to the Chinese for campaign cash.

So now we get our Mannings, Snowdens, black hackers and other nefarious folks. Why are you surprised?

16 posted on 11/12/2017 2:41:25 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: maggief

The globalist police state is going to keep being hit with acts of subversion by it’s own employees. Few people who know this stuff well support government surveillance. The whole hacker culture is very libertarian and anarchist. At the IQ levels necessary for elite hacking, people tend to be nonconformists who follow their conscience. Elite high IQ people are the hardest to control. They tend to trust in their own judgements and see through lies and false narratives quickly. The police state relies on conformist, moderately intelligent organization men who elite hackers don’t respect.

You can’t teach moderately bright loyal follower types elite cutting edge hacking skills in some training program. People who can do this are innately mathematically gifted and have spent their whole lives absorbing vast bodies of information about the details of computer systems. The only answer is for the government to return to it’s Constitutionally defined role as a guardian of our privacy, then there will be no need to expose non-existant wrong doing. You’ll never be able to get the elite hackers to mindlessly follow corrupt authority.


17 posted on 11/12/2017 2:45:04 PM PST by WatchungEagle
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To: WatchungEagle

The globalist police state is going to keep being hit with acts of subversion by it’s own employees. Few people who know this stuff well support government surveillance. The whole hacker culture is very libertarian and anarchist. At the IQ levels necessary for elite hacking, people tend to be nonconformists who follow their conscience. Elite high IQ people are the hardest to control. They tend to trust in their own judgements and see through lies and false narratives quickly. The police state relies on conformist, moderately intelligent organization men who elite hackers don’t respect.


Good observation. The hackers on the inside just might be the virus that destroys the Deep State.


18 posted on 11/12/2017 3:40:20 PM PST by Flick Lives (The FBI is a taxpayer funded Mafia organization)
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To: maggief

Bkmrk.


19 posted on 11/12/2017 3:47:29 PM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Screw The NFL!!!!!! My family fought for the flag!)
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To: maggief

The pattern of dribbling out stolen documents over many months, they say, echoes the slow release of Democratic emails purloined by Russian hackers last year.

this is FAKE NEWS.


20 posted on 11/12/2017 3:55:25 PM PST by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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