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On Monday, The Washington Post reported one of the most stunning breaches of security ever. A former NSA contractor, the paper said, stole more than 50 terabytes of highly sensitive data. According to one source, that includes more than 75 percent of the hacking tools belonging to the Tailored Access Operations. TAO is an elite hacking unit that develops and deploys some of the world's most sophisticated software exploits.
Attorneys representing Harold T. Martin III have previously portrayed the former NSA contractor as a patriot who took NSA materials home so that he could become better at his job. Meanwhile, investigators who have combed through his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland, remain concerned that he passed the weaponized hacking tools to enemies. The theft came to light during the investigation of a series of NSA-developed exploits that were mysteriously published online by a group calling itself Shadow Brokers.
[...] An unnamed US official told the paper that Martin allegedly hoarded more than 75 percent of the TAO's library of hacking tools. It's hard to envision a scenario under which a theft of that much classified material by a single individual would be possible.
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(Score: 2) by istartedi on Tuesday February 07 2017, @08:35PM
That's because teenage nihilists usually have a negative net worth. Mature adults
usually have some assets.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday February 07 2017, @09:44PM
Isn't it wonderful how people are tamed by the idea that they have something to lose (tangible or not)?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Tuesday February 07 2017, @09:49PM
Assets are not what make you beholding and slaved to those above.
You were speaking about DEBT.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by istartedi on Wednesday February 08 2017, @12:43AM
Huh? First, I didn't mean to imply that assets make you "beholding
and slaved to those above". I see how you might infer that though--people
who have something to lose are "invested in the system". If the country
"goes sour" they may look at what the alternatives are and feel trapped.
Debt is literally the exact opposite of what I said; but I think I can see
how you might have made that inference also--some people have illusory
assets like a house that they actually owe a lot of money on. I think it's hyperbolic
and diminishing the problem of real slaves to use the word "slavery" outright;
but the phrase "debt slave" and "wage slave" is what you're talking about
and it's a real thing.
That's not what I was talking about though. If you have no assets recorded
in a database, if you're living paycheck-to-paycheck or heavily in debt then "watching
it all burn" is appealing. Your debts would be wiped out. OTOH, if you have assets
recorded in databases, then you want those databases to be secure. I wasn't speaking
so much to the social issues of how we feel about the economic system, more to
the consequences of losing data integrity to those at different positions within that system.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 08 2017, @03:57AM
ediii doesn't care what you meant
your words triggered him
so he had to get his generic rant out