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The purpose of the NSA is the same as the purpose of the military: To apply force in the digital arena, the same way the military applies force in the physical
by sillysaurus3 9y ago
The purpose of the NSA is the same as the purpose of the military: To apply force in the digital arena, the same way the military applies force in the physical arena.
In the same vein, the NSA isn't about protection. That's not their role, just like the point of the military isn't protection.
- infogulch 9y ago> the point of the military isn't protection I'd argue that it is, if indirectly.
- sillysaurus3 9y agoIt's true. We're all safer thanks to the enormous success of our military. That's why it's valuable, just like the NSA. So it leads to the same logical conclusions: If the point of the military is to apply force to an opponent, then the NSA has to have ways of applying force to a digital opponent. Disclosing vulnerabilities would be precisely the opposite of what they should do.
- ionised 9y ago> We're all safer thanks to the enormous success of our military Examples from the last 50 years?
- extra88 9y agoNSA has dual roles, not only spying on others but also protecting U.S. resources. This creates this tension between keeping exploits secret or informing vendors and others. For a long time, security researchers like Bruce Schneier have advocated for splitting the NSA up, essentially one for offense and one for defense.