Exporting software to spy on people should be regulated similarly to weapons exports, I feel.
I wonder what kind of programmer works for companies that produce this spyware...
I wonder what kind of programmer works for companies that produce this spyware...
I think you have a mix of ideas:
"I'm the best at what I do and I deserve to be rewarded for that, particularly when vulnerabilities are so valuable today."
(and for some) "If other people aren't smart enough, they deserve to be exploited."
(and for some) "The governments I work for* are the good guys and their targets are the bad guys."
I've said before that people reading these threads on HN have a chance to influence culture to make these ideas less appealing to people.
* particularly for people who work full time for a single government agency or military service, or for companies that have a list of which governments they will and won't sell to
i.e. only sold to friendly oppressive regimes? :(
This is why Schneier is calling it "surveillance as a business model":
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/11/surveillance_...
no offense intended, but ...
Nicolas Sarkozy saw Libya as his chance to top what Bush did in Iraq.
One that likes high salary and hefty bonuses. Being mixed with the security services gives you great access to otherwise unobtainable information and connections. You may be a lowly codemonkey, but talk with government agencies heads. And they will listen. And emitting cloak and dagger vibe definitely helps in the dating scene.
Googling around there's several similar tools available on GitHub... so I guess the answer to your question is lots of people would do it mostly for fun. Definitely sounds more interesting than the stuff I work on most days. And you're not even really involved in the exploitation, just the post-exploitation control.