Hacker News Reader

Comment by digitalneal | Hacker News Reader

I think its safe to say NSA/GCHQ are not the only ones in the game who have hit this target.

On that note, I wonder if their compromising of these systems affords the target any sort of immunization from attacks by other actors.

It would make sense that NSA/GHCQ wouldn't want their foreign competitors to share in the prize, and it would also be congruent with their interests to not afford competing actors access to such a prize.

Then again, this notion is likely far too romantic. The reality is probably closer to one where foreign actors have compromised everything just the same.

Sometimes denying data to others is as good as advertising that someone else got there first. So you might want to leave the treasure trove in place so that nobody else figures out you have it.

Intelligence is wheels within wheels within wheels...

Good point. However, it might be possible to deny adversaries without alerting them to the fact that they were denied in the first place.

Depends how advanced the adversary is. It also depends on if you want to deny them, because you might learn something by watching what they do. Or you might feed them false data and see what happens.

Aren't mind games fun?

and the inverse is that there can be good intel gleaned by watching who else is trying to get in.

And you can learn a lot by letting them in and seeing what they look for.

Emphasis on can, of course.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com