• The New York Times on Sunday published a detailed look
  at how the National Security Agency, the US’s largest and most
  secretive intelligence agency, had been deeply infiltrated over
  the past year.
• Expensive NSA cyberweapons are now for sale to hostile
  countries and have already been used in cyberattacks against
  the public.
• Now doubt surrounds the NSA, and experts wonder whether
  the agency can do its job at all.

Reuters

The National Security Agency, the US’s largest and most secretive
intelligence agency, has been deeply infiltrated by anonymous
hackers, as detailed in a New
York Times exposé published Sunday.

The NSA, which compiles massive troves of data on US citizens and
organizes cyberoffensives against the US’s enemies, was deeply
compromised by a group known as the Shadow Brokers, which has
made headlines in the past year in connection to the breach,
whose source remains unclear.

The group now posts cryptic, mocking messages pointed toward the
NSA as it sells the cyberweapons, created at huge cost to US
taxpayers, to any and all buyers, including US adversaries like
North Korea and Russia.

“It’s a disaster on multiple levels,” Jake Williams, a
cybersecurity expert who formerly worked on the NSA’s hacking
group, told The Times. “It’s embarrassing that the people
responsible for this have not been brought to justice.”

“These leaks have been incredibly damaging to our intelligence
and cybercapabilities,” Leon Panetta, the former director of the
Central Intelligence Agency, told The Times. “The fundamental
purpose of intelligence is to be able to effectively penetrate
our adversaries in order to gather vital intelligence. By its
very nature, that only works if secrecy is maintained and our
codes are protected.”

Furthermore, a wave of cybercrime has been linked to the release
of the NSA’s leaked cyberweapons.

Another NSA source who spoke with The Times described the attack
as being at least in part the NSA’s fault. The NSA has long
prioritized cyberoffense over securing its own systems, the
source said. As a result the US now essentially has to start over
on cyberinitiatives, Panetta said.

Read the full story at
The New York Times here.