The agency tasked with keeping America safe has been revealed to be engaged in doing the opposite, by exploiting the Heartbleed bug which has been raising security concerns across the nation. Bloomberg is reporting that the National Security Agency has known about the computer bug for about two years. The agency reportedly knew that the bug existed and even exploited it to gain sensitive information such as email passwords. The NSA’s decision to exploit this bug is igniting a debate over whether the institution truly has American national security as their core mission.
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The Heartbleed bug is reportedly one of the biggest glitches in computer history. The flaw has compromised the basic security of two-thirds of the world’s websites. The NSA left these flaws open, presumably so that other U.S. intelligence agencies could exploit it for their own purposes as well. If these agencies are supposed to be keeping us safe, why are they doing the opposite?
The Heartbleed bug is a perfect example of what the NSA should be warning people about. The fact that they sat back and did nothing, no even worse, that they used it for their own nefarious deeds is absolutely beyond the pale. The institution deserves a complete audit from top to bottom and those responsible should be fired, or retired. Former general and NSA head James Clapper has yet to be prosecuted for committing perjury for lying to congress about the NSA spying on the American people. His arrest, indictment and incarceration should be demanded immediately. He lied not just once, but two times to the congress and to the American people. Clapper should be investigated immediately for whatever role he may have had in allowing the NSA to exploit Heartbleed and his failure in informing the American people about this.
Director of the cyber statecraft initiative Jason Healey stated that, “It flies in the face of the agency’s comments that defense comes first. They are going to be completely shredded by the computer security community for this.”
As well they should. It’s a total, blatant act of hypocrisy for the NSA to claim that Edward Snowden is some sort of traitorous leaker for exposing the NSA’s unconstitutional surveillance while they have sat aside and allowed Americans data to be leaked all over the Internet for years. Who knows how much damage has been done to individuals security and privacy, or even the whole economy? How much data has been stolen in the last two years? How many email accounts hacked? What exactly is the point of a National Security Administration that doesn’t even try to protect our security?
The National Security Administration of the United States needs a purge from top to bottom, failing that it should be shuttered immediately and its top officials tried for failure of duty or treason… whichever’s more expedient.
