>> If you’re intelligent enough to protect yourself with proper browser configuration and extensions/add-ons, the NSA has to work that much harder to get to you.
Maybe; the unknown variable is to what extent Adobe, Sun, Microsoft, etc. create, with NSA sponsorship, intentional exploitable backdoors in their software that your anti-virus software doesn’t know about.
And remember that these vendors have privileged access to most peoples’ computers so they can install updates regularly. Wonder if any of those updates ever include NSA-requested back doors?
Easy solutions to all of those vendors: don’t use them.
Adobe and Java are not MANDATORY to browse the web. You don’t need them for FR, for example. Likewise, Microsoft may have a stranglehold on the new PC market, but that doesn’t mean you can’t blow away the OS on your shiny new laptop and install Ubuntu or some other variant of Linux.
I’ve gone over to Linux almost exclusively. The one exception is my gaming PC, but I’ve configured that machine to not permit communication with the rest of my network and I do not browse the web with it nor access email or other private information.
There are hundreds of roadblocks and dead ends any competent person can place on their private home networks and on their machines. If you’ve gone so far as to change your default SSID on your wireless router, configure your home network devices with complex passwords/phrases, and implement restrictions in modern web browsers, the NSA isn’t going to be snooping on you anytime soon.
Just note what Schneier is saying here: the NSA is not directly tapping your home Internet connections... yet. They still MUST get a warrant to watch your communications across “secure” subscribed lines such as those provided by your ISP. The NSA is essentially snooping on anyone using insecure browsers, not practicing safe browsing, and/or otherwise putting their personal data out there through social networking and insecure personal communication (i.e. not using HTTPS). They’re no more cloak-and-dagger than your average Russian or Chinese scammer... for now.
Maybe; the unknown variable is to what extent Adobe, Sun, Microsoft, etc. create, with NSA sponsorship, intentional exploitable backdoors in their software that your anti-virus software doesn’t know about.
This article and your comment brought up yet another possibility.
While there are plenty of “ads” that are created to look like the “free downloadable” software that you actually want, you only need to be tricked by them once before being more careful.
I would not be surprised if the NSA is running a “front company”, something similar to “My Clean PC” in order to infect machines.