Snowden: NSA Hacking Tools Leak Is ‘a warning’
According to whistleblower Edward Snowden, a recent leak of secret NSA hacking tools reflects an escalation in tensions between Russia and the United States. For others, though, it highlights concerns about what, if any, privacy is afforded to the general public.
The NSA whistleblower lit up Twitter recently with suggestions of “Russian responsibility” in the recent release of the NSA tools, noting that it could be a response to accusations by the Hillary Clinton campaign that Russian hackers leaked internal Democratic National Convention emails.
13) TL;DR: This leak looks like a somebody sending a message that an escalation in the attribution game could get messy fast.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) August 16, 2016
The suite of hacking tools, which were leaked by a group calling themselves the Shadow Brokers, consists of complex “malware” programs, malicious software designed to secretly take over targeted networks by exploiting security vulnerabilities in commercially available, widely used internet software.
Snowden, who leaked classified NSA documents which revealed the agency’s surveillance of millions of people around the world, was forced to take asylum in Russia in 2013 after the U.S. government canceled his passport.
Though Snowden and other computer security experts have pointed toward Russia as the originator of the NSA malware leak, some former NSA staffers disagree. Recently, Motherboard interviewed a former NSA staffer who speculated that the leak could be the result of another insider - in effect, another Snowden.
“My colleagues and I are fairly certain that this was no hack, or group for that matter,” the former NSA employee told Motherboard. “This ‘Shadow Brokers’ character is one guy, an insider employee.”
Regardless of the source of the NSA leak, the files reveal a growing reliance on high-tech tools and government hackers from all sides of what some have deemed a “new Cold War.”
