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Comment by natch | Hacker News Reader

I wonder, how many cases of insider trading by NSA employees and their extended families have been prosecuted much less investigated?

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Why would the NSA monitor everyone in the world but not its employees' activities on their internal databases? Security within the NSA would have to be pretty terrible if employees were running their own hedge funds on the NSA's data without the NSA noticing. That said if it did somehow happen they might be prosecuted against intelligence laws rather than financial law so they wouldn't have to reveal aspects of their internal data into public evidence in an insider trading trial.

Why would the NSA monitor everyone in the world but not its employees' activities on their internal databases?

Did you really just ask that?

> Security within the NSA would have to be pretty terrible if employees were running their own hedge funds on the NSA's data without the NSA noticing.

I believe this is one of the points that Edward Snowden was trying to make. He himself could have had a hedge fund, and he could have used private information he gained in his NSA contracting before that information became public knowledge.

Hell, his coworkers were getting in minor trouble for stalking their exes.

Be real, Top Secret clearance checks routinely look at finances, and employees are told to report colleagues purchases that seem out of place. Not necessarily because they are running a hedge fund, but more likely are receiving money from the "KGB" to steal secrets.

But who is going to make sure of the spy's spying on the spy's?

We actually live in a situation where the government has more power than the Starzi and everyone has passively accepted this. The end of freedom with zero violence and complete obedience.

Not to worry I'm sure the people in charge will always use these systems to do good things. Please don't come get me! Thanks.

You missed the part where I said "extended families"?

I would imagine it's at least somewhat rare. The indicators for espionage and insider trading are quite similar: most spies are caught because of sudden affluence. Making a ton of money off insider trading is going to set off a lot of red flags and likely trigger an investigation.

tell that to Aldrich Ames. His coworkers reported him in 1989 for living a life of affluence (if I recall right, he bought a brand new Jaguar and actually drove it to CIA headquarters, even though he wasn't making more than $65k a year or thereabouts). But he wasn't arrested until 1994.

So if he practiced stealth wealth like many wealthy americans do, he would be less likely to be caught?!

NSA not required. Our politicians are immune to insider trading laws: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/07/congress-argue...

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