I came here to say "you're only as strong as your weakest link", but I have to admit this is plausible as well. However, from a hacker perspective, what differ

I came here to say "you're only as strong as your weakest link", but I have to admit this is plausible as well. However, from a hacker perspective, what difference does it make? Social engineering tactics are widely known to be very effective in a lot of cases, and the NSA is no different. Snowden was accused in the past of trying to do this [1], although from his perspective (as well as mine, for that matter) he was probably just trying to explore the limits/boundaries of the systems he worked with [2]. I agree regarding the lack of details, and that this is probably a false report. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if Snowden actually gave it a shot - if you can find someone actually willing to just hand you their credentials, why wouldn't you? Although I understand they're trying to make Snowden look worse with this, I don't see that it does - if anything, it highlights his strengths as a security researcher, while simultaneously showing that the NSA is susceptible to the same social engineering flaws as have been demonstrated elsewhere. ---- [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/us/cia-warning-on-snowden-in-09-said-to-slip-through-the-cracks.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/us/cia-warning-on-snowden-... [2] http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131017/15530424921/snowdens-negative-writeup-cia-was-whistleblowing-taught-him-why-going-through-proper-channels-gets-punished.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131017/15530424921/snowde...