re: #80 abolitionist

Simply put, they are breaking the internet. They are injecting malware and exploits into innocent peoples’ computers, and accessing them in ways that are contrary to US law.

They could also tap a phone, deploy a satellite or set up a surveillance team as well.

How the NSA Is Trying to Sabotage a U.S. Government-Funded Countersurveillance Tool

According to the leaked slides published Friday by the Guardian, the NSA has devised a way to identify targeted Tor users, and it has the capacity to covertly redirect targets to a set of special servers called “FoxAcid.” Once identified as a target, the spy agency can try to infect a user with malware by preying on software vulnerabilities in the Mozilla Firefox browser. This capability was hinted at in a report by Brazilian TV show Fantastico in September. As I noted at the time, the British spy agency GCHQ appeared to be monitoring Tor users as part of a program called “Flying Pig.”

Notably, the leaked Snowden files on Tor may shed light on some of the tactics used by the U.S. government to identify the recently outed alleged mastermind of the Silk Road online drug empire. Silk Road operated on a hidden Tor server, which was tracked down by the feds and shut down. Back in August, the feds also managed to shut down a Tor server allegedly used to host images of child abuse. In a malware attack that was linked by researchers to the NSA, the FBI reportedly exploited a Mozilla vulnerability to target users—similar to the spy methods described in the Snowden documents.

Please note the part where it says “TARGETED”. Additionally, since the systems are anonymous the NSA will end up occasionally targeting innocent sources who won’t be involved, but the NSA would have no way to know that ahead of time.

So, where is the abuse versus the potential for abuse?