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In reply to the discussion: In case you missed it..Matt Taibbi leaves Rolling Stone for new digs. [View all]questionseverything
(9,631 posts)but in the back of my mind a warning does keep going off....be careful if it seems to good to be true...well you know how that old advise ends
brushing that aside firstlook has already done incredible reporting and in an effort to bump this thread, I will copy/paste some of the most offensive parts of what has been disclosed to date......
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The NSA has a diverse arsenal of malware tools, each highly sophisticated and customizable for different purposes.
One implant, codenamed UNITEDRAKE, can be used with a variety of plug-ins that enable the agency to gain total control of an infected computer.
An implant plug-in named CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE, for example, is used to take over a targeted computers microphone and record conversations taking place near the device. Another, GUMFISH, can covertly take over a computers webcam and snap photographs. FOGGYBOTTOM records logs of Internet browsing histories and collects login details and passwords used to access websites and email accounts. GROK is used to log keystrokes. And SALVAGERABBIT exfiltrates data from removable flash drives that connect to an infected computer.
The implants can enable the NSA to circumvent privacy-enhancing encryption tools that are used to browse the Internet anonymously or scramble the contents of emails as they are being sent across networks. Thats because the NSAs malware gives the agency unfettered access to a targets computer before the user protects their communications with encryption.
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so not only does our gov't waste our money spying on us, they also interfere with our communications and ruin the expensive equipment we buy
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/03/12/nsa-plans-infect-millions-computers-malware/