Background:
Hidden in the report which the White House panel on NSA released [9] today is a stunning implication: that the U.S. government has been using its massive offensive cyber capabilities [10] to change the amounts held in financial accounts and otherwise manipulating financial systems.
Specifically, the panel’s report states (page 221):
(1) Governments should not use surveillance to steal industry secrets to advantage their domestic industry;
(2) Governments should not use their offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial systems ….
[11]
The government certainly massively manipulates [12] the economy and financial system.
There are already numerous examples of offensive cyber actions by the NSA:
- A high-level intelligence source said, “we hack everyone everywhere” [13]
- The largest German newspaper [14] – Süddeutsche Zeitung – alleges that the U.S. government helped Monsanto attack the computers [15] of activists opposed to genetically modified food
- Edward Snowden says that NSA spying is used for “diplomatic manipulation” [7]
- And we’ve long noted that the U.S. government manipulates social media and news [10] through cyber manipulation
As spying expert Trevor Timm from the Electronic Frontier Foundation Tweeted (and Glenn Greenwald – who has seen the Snowden documents – re-tweeted):
Does this NSA report recommendation imply that NSA is conducting offensive cyber attacks against financial systems?
Remember, the NSA is tapping into and spying on the biggest financial payments systems [16] such as VISA and Swift.
Top financial experts say that the NSA and other intelligence agencies are using information gained from spying to profit from this inside information [17]. And the NSA wants to ramp up its spying on Wall Street [18] … to “protect” it.
Whose money, exactly, is the NSA “protecting” … and how are they protecting it?
What about the money of people that the U.S. government considers undesirables [19]?