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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHacking Is NSA's 'Growth Area,' Times Says In Agency Profile - CNET
Hacking is NSA's 'growth area,' Times says in agency profileDrawing on thousands of leaked documents, The New York Times and the UK's Guardian offer up lengthy looks at the beleaguered spy agency.
by Edward Moyer - CNET
November 2, 2013 3:05 PM PDT
<snip>
Hacking has become the US National Security Agency's "growth area." That's the word from The New York Times, which pulled from thousands of documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to publish on Saturday a lengthy article it described as "a rich sampling of the agency's global operations and culture." The Times was joined by the UK's Guardian newspaper, which published its own version of the piece.
Discussing how an agency with 35,000 employees and an official annual budget of $10.8 billion has "an almost unlimited agenda," the Times reports that the NSA "spies routinely on friends as well as foes" not only to fight terrorism but also to "achieve 'diplomatic advantage' over such allies as France and Germany and 'economic advantage' over Japan and Brazil, among other countries."
(The Guardian adds several items to the agenda, with "support for US military in the field; gathering information about military technology; anticipating state instability; monitoring regional tensions; countering drug trafficking;...<and> ensuring a reliable energy supply for the US," and it cites a quote from the NSA itself in noting that the agency can scoop up info from "virtually every country."

Both pieces also offer a selection of specific examples of the agency's spying prowess, from real-time eavesdropping of terrorist communications during an attack on a hotel to the pinpointing of a sniper who was targeting American personnel inside the US "Green Zone" in Baghdad.
Both, too, note that despite such seemingly impressive accomplishments, the agency has its problems, from failing, as the Times puts it, "to produce a clear victory over a low-tech enemy" -- the Taliban in Afghanistan -- to the much-reported shortcomings in regard to ensuring the privacy of Americans' communications.
Not surprisingly -- given an agency that, as the Guardian reports, describes our new world of high-tech activities as the "digital battlefield" -- both articles discuss the NSA's technological chops. The "growth area" remark about hacking comes in a section of the Times piece that discusses NSA divisions known as Tailored Access Operations and the Transgression Branch.
<snip>
Much More: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57610546-38/hacking-is-nsas-growth-area-times-says-in-agency-profile/

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Hacking Is NSA's 'Growth Area,' Times Says In Agency Profile - CNET (Original Post)
WillyT
Nov 2013
OP
WillyT
(72,631 posts)1. Addendum:
You can read the Times piece here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/no-morsel-too-minuscule-for-all-consuming-nsa.html
and the Guardian piece here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/02/nsa-portrait-total-surveillance
Though they're similar to an extent, it's worthwhile to read both -- not only do you get more NSA tidbits, you get a glimpse of different editorial approaches as well. Be sure, also, to check out the Guardian's impressively executed multimedia feature "NSA Files: Decoded." You'll find that here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/snowden-nsa-files-surveillance-revelations-decoded#section/1
and the Guardian piece here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/02/nsa-portrait-total-surveillance
Though they're similar to an extent, it's worthwhile to read both -- not only do you get more NSA tidbits, you get a glimpse of different editorial approaches as well. Be sure, also, to check out the Guardian's impressively executed multimedia feature "NSA Files: Decoded." You'll find that here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/snowden-nsa-files-surveillance-revelations-decoded#section/1
Same as OP.