""Intelligence officials say that any legal case could result in exposing American intelligence operations inside China — including the placement of thousands of implants in Chinese computer networks to warn of impending attacks.""
That also sounds like hacking into another country's systems.
The rational move is a massive investment in security technology including strong encryption and the kind of work that the NSA used to do in the 1990s of working to make Windows and Linux more secure for American businesses.
Any attempt by our intelligence services to back door computer systems, instead of working to make everyone more secure, is a grave disservice to the American taxpayer.
> Any attempt by our intelligence services to back door computer systems, instead of working to make everyone more secure, is a grave disservice to the American taxpayer.
And that's what our leaders don't understand. If the NSA has access to backdoors in collusion with vendors, what stops China or Russia from exploiting the same backdoors ? absolutely nothing. If the NSA can hack phones because provider X or Z has setup a "secret" interface for that purpose, well it's going to be exploited by someone else, and foreign hackers will figure it out. How can the NSA be sure that PRISM and co themselves aren't compromised?
Our leaders have a poor understanding of technology. In the Washington Post there was a call for encryption with access for a "golden key". You know, so police, etc. can investigate if needed. They don't realize how that weakens the entire system, making it easier for your adversaries as well.
So everyone is concentrating on the offensive abilities, because that's where the easy pickings are. And you can make flashy presentations about "how we f*cked them over". Flashy presentation about how you probably reduced the risk of a security breach by a few percentage points? Not so much.
That also sounds like hacking into another country's systems.
The rational move is a massive investment in security technology including strong encryption and the kind of work that the NSA used to do in the 1990s of working to make Windows and Linux more secure for American businesses.
Any attempt by our intelligence services to back door computer systems, instead of working to make everyone more secure, is a grave disservice to the American taxpayer.