The United States government is investing tens of millions of dollars each year on offensive hacking operations in order to exploit vulnerabilities in the computers of its adversaries, Reuters reports.
According to an in-depth article published Friday by journalist
Joseph Menn, the US and its Department of Defense contractors are
increasingly pursuing efforts to hack the computers of foreign
competitors, in turn exposing a rarely discussed aspect of the
nation’s clandestine cyber operations.
In a time when the government continues to prosecute alleged
domestic computer criminals – so much so that demands for
technology law reform have been rampant as of late – Menn says the US
is guilty of spending millions on discovering, identifying and
exploiting previously unknown security flaws, often gaining
unfettered access to the systems and networks of international
targets.
As a result, the US has become one of the world’s top players in
regards to wreaking havoc over the Internet – even as calls to
investigate foreign hackers increase in Congress.
On Tuesday, a bipartisan supported proposal was introduced in
Congress specifically to protect US commercial data from being
compromised by foreign hackers. According to Menn, however, the
American government is just as guilty of cybercrimes as the
countries it warns against in introducing the “Deter Cyber Theft
Act.”
“Even as the US government confronts rival powers over
widespread Internet espionage, it has become the biggest buyer in a
burgeoning gray market where hackers and security firms sell tools
for breaking into computers,” Menn wrote.
In his report, Menn explained that a large chunk of the
country’s current cyber endeavors does not rely on defensive
strategy as one might imagine, but instead involves offensive
operations launched with the intent of causing harm on the
computers of adversaries.
Menn wrote defense contractors “spend at least tens of
millions of dollars a year” on simply researching exploits
that, if pursued, could put the eyes and ears of the American
intelligence company essentially anywhere in the world.
And although the US has not officially gone on the record to
acknowledge these shadowy operations, Menn wrote that the nation’s
most well-known cyber endeavor – the Stuxnet worm that targeted Iranian nuclear plants – is
just one example of the budding attempts to attack foreign
entities.
“Computer researchers in the public and private sectors say
the US government, acting mainly through defense contractors, has
become the dominant player in fostering the shadowy but large-scale
commercial market for tools known as exploits, which burrow into
hidden computer vulnerabilities,” he wrote.
“In their most common use, exploits are critical but
interchangeable components inside bigger programs. Those programs
can steal financial account passwords, turn an iPhone into
This article originally appeared on : RT