NSA Considers Its Networks Compromised

Orome1 writes "Debora Plunkett, head of the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, has confirmed what many security experts suspected to be true: no computer network can be considered completely and utterly impenetrable — not even that of the NSA. 'There's no such thing as "secure" any more,' she said to the attendees of a cyber security forum sponsored by the Atlantic and Government Executive media organizations, and confirmed that the NSA works under the assumption that various parts of their systems have already been compromised, and is adjusting its actions accordingly."

Comments

Think of systems as prisons

[devleopard]

In other words, no internal trust. You eliminate all assumptions in-house with the requisite sandboxes, minimal privileges, etc. Like prison: no one is your friend, you merely have alliances that can be severed at the moment that trust is no longer needed.

Re:Well

[afabbro]

They didn't say their networks are compromised. To be on the safe side, they just assume they are.

Yep it's a RIAA/MPAA model. Assume guilt until proven otherwise, in this case compromised until proven otherwise. Makes you wonder what the NSA is really good for.

Wow...you've leaped from a national security organization adopting a policy of extreme care to a comparison with the recording industry lawsuits. Do you have some sort of associative-compulsive disorder or are you really stating there is any relationship between the two? Or are you just bitter?