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Comment by _n_b_ | Hacker News Reader

This seems like something completely sensible and even predictable for the NSA to do.

Yeah, of all things to leak... even pre-Snowden, this is what I would expect the NSA to do, because watching other countries' intelligence agencies is what they're supposed to do.

Agreed. The news here is that they can't stop hemorrhaging information about their activities.

I imagine the morale there right now must be completely in the dumps. The volume and frequency of critical leaks and breaches is pretty ridiculous.

You say this like it’s not obvious. Just because what they’re doing is OK doesn’t make it uninteresting. There are lots of posts on HN about completely sensible things.

Why does the NSA need defending this badly anyway?

I think people are conditioned to associate "leaks" with "scandals" (especially when it comes to the three letter agencies), when in actuality this "leak" is just a revelation of completely reasonable and expected activities.

Isn't it inherently scandalous for intelligence agencies to misplace this sort of information?

Yes it is. As somebody above said, the news here is that they can’t keep anything secret.

I take the comment as an explanation...not a claim that the world as it is is the the way it ought to be.

Does it really need explaining? The sky is blue, the NSA isn't 100% evil.

It just feels really out of place under an article focusing on the technical side of things, not accusing the NSA of anything nefarious.

Despite neither the article or any of the comments here suggesting there's anything wrong with the NSA activities being discussed, several users felt the need to preemptively stand up the agency:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16536778

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16537479

I don't know exactly what to make of it, but this kind of behavior just seems strange to me.

It's cool to see how it is done.

I was about to comment the exact same thing. It's known for years, now, that they do that. This practice is outlined in the book "Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It," in which the author explains how the NSA has a profile on all (know) Chinese hackers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com