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There has been a lot of cyber crime in recent years, e.g. see the recent wave of ransomware attacks. These criminals are mostly amateurs that know some exploits
by NotSwift 5y ago
There has been a lot of cyber crime in recent years, e.g. see the recent wave of ransomware attacks. These criminals are mostly amateurs that know some exploits and use them. The NSA is a huge organization that employs many professional experts. Spying is one of their main objectives so you can be pretty certain that they are pretty good at it. Computer systems contain a lot of vulnerabilities and you can be pretty certain that they know a lot of them.
The computers of most people are vulnerable even to normal cyber criminals, the NSA is a lot more powerful.
- inlikealamb 5y agoMost of their work probably doesn't even need to be technical. How many high-profile attacks have been based on social engineering?
- killjoywashere 5y agoMost people hear "social engineering" and think of someone playing journalist to get access to places. The NSA's idea of social engineering is having the CIA work with the BND to buy Crypto AG.
- inlikealamb 5y agohow many "former" government employees work at Google?
- NotSwift 5y agoSocial engineering can be highly effective. However, from what we know about the NSA, especially from the Snowden leaks, it appears to be mainly a technical agency. It seems likely that the NSA does not use social engineering on a large scale itself but hands it off to other agencies like the CIA or the FBI.