Hacks Raise Fear Over NSA's Hold on Cyberweapons (nytimes.com)

Nicole Perlroth, and David Sanger, writing for The New York Times: Twice in the past month, National Security Agency cyberweapons stolen from its arsenal have been turned against two very different partners of the United States -- Britain and Ukraine. The N.S.A. has kept quiet, not acknowledging its role in developing the weapons (alternative source). White House officials have deflected many questions, and responded to others by arguing that the focus should be on the attackers themselves, not the manufacturer of their weapons. But the silence is wearing thin for victims of the assaults, as a series of escalating attacks using N.S.A. cyberweapons have hit hospitals, a nuclear site and American businesses. Now there is growing concern that United States intelligence agencies have rushed to create digital weapons that they cannot keep safe from adversaries or disable once they fall into the wrong hands. On Wednesday, the calls for the agency to address its role in the latest attacks grew louder, as victims and technology companies cried foul. Representative Ted Lieu, a California Democrat and a former Air Force officer who serves on the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees, urged the N.S.A. to help stop the attacks and to stop hoarding knowledge of the computer vulnerabilities upon which these weapons rely.

Comments

Re:just like gun control

[Anonymous Coward]

do you allow people the ability to defend themselves, seeing as police rarely ever arrive in time to do anything other than write reports and gather evidence, or do you leave them defenseless?

Note that there are far more good people than bad people. That means that by allowing people to arm themselves there will be far more good people with guns vs bad people with guns, and the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun

And this is why, every day, so many shootings are interrupted or prevented by good guys with guns. Obviously the media don't report these incidents. If we could only further increase gun ownership we might be able to stop mass-shootings entirely.