Last week, following the news that a previously unknown hacker collective, "The Shadow Brokers" had hacked and released legitimate hacking tools from the NSA's own special-ops entity, the "Equation Group", initial speculation that Russians may have penetrated the US spy agency - suggested by none other than Edward Snowden - shifted to the suggestion that the agency may be housing another "mole" insider. As we noted on Thursday, a former NSA source told Motherboard, that “it’s plausible” that the leakers are actually a disgruntled insider, claiming that it’s easier to walk out of the NSA with a USB drive or a CD than hack its servers. Michael Adams, an information security expert who served more than two decades in the US Special Operations Command, agreed that it’s a viable theory.
“It’s Snowden junior,” Adams told Motherboard. “Except he doesn’t want to end up in virtual prison in Russia. He’s smart enough to rip off shit, but also smart enough to be unidentifiable.”
Today, in an op-ed by cybersecurity expert, James Bamford, author of The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, and columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, writes that this is increasingly looking as the most probable explanation, and that Russia had nothing to do with this latest - and most provocative yet - hack.
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