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I was in fact referring to exploits in my post. That's typically how NSA and GCHQ operate these days: either find exploits, or if a sufficient number can't be f

I was in fact referring to exploits in my post. That's typically how NSA and GCHQ operate these days: either find exploits, or if a sufficient number can't be found, have some hard-to-detect exploits inserted into the code by operatives or as part of unrelated bug fixes. There's also hardware exploits. The firmware doesn't need to have a back door if a certain sequence of packets sent to the network controller will cause key memory to be overwritten and live patch in a backdoor.

ncmncm 7y ago
Agreed, hardware backdoors are very possible, but software is much cheaper to mess with. The spooks have in the past shown a preference for hardware jimmying, but those have been one-off cases. That said: monkey-patching is much more easily concealed than hardware or source-code changes, and is more in line with how US spooks have been seen to operate.