At a Senate intelligence hearing for an unrelated matter this week, senators ended up asking NSA and other intelligence brass about the president and the Russia investigation.
The officials told senators they would not discuss the specifics of conversations with the president.
They said they thought it was confidential information that should be protected from public hearing. They also said they were waiting for more guidance from the White House.
There was some talk about senators now being concerned about their ability to look into these matters and get answers from U.S. intelligence, and whether power has now shifted to the executive.
Showing posts with label NSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NSA. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 June 2017
Monday, 15 May 2017
Microsoft Blaming NSA for WannaCry Malware Pandemic
Microsoft President Brad Smith complained that various governments "stockpile vulnerabilities."
In other words, governments and agencies find weaknesses in technology and then keep that information to themselves in case they want to use it.
Smith said the current WannaCry malware event was a very rare one, combining a piece of very sophisticated software (to do the exploit) with a simpler piece (to do the ransom), conducted by a criminal organization.
To accusations Microsoft didn't do enough to alert people about the danger, Smith said, "Microsoft has the first responsibility." He called it a "wake-up call for us," and that "we should all learn from this."
In response to questions about whether the NSA told Microsoft they had a tool that exploited the vulnerability, Smith said, "I don't want to go into the specifics about how we learned this particular problem, or by whom or when. It is a public record that we provided a patch in March. There wasn't a public statement until April.
"But what I think is also important: We need the global community to come together."
In other words, governments and agencies find weaknesses in technology and then keep that information to themselves in case they want to use it.
Smith said the current WannaCry malware event was a very rare one, combining a piece of very sophisticated software (to do the exploit) with a simpler piece (to do the ransom), conducted by a criminal organization.
To accusations Microsoft didn't do enough to alert people about the danger, Smith said, "Microsoft has the first responsibility." He called it a "wake-up call for us," and that "we should all learn from this."
In response to questions about whether the NSA told Microsoft they had a tool that exploited the vulnerability, Smith said, "I don't want to go into the specifics about how we learned this particular problem, or by whom or when. It is a public record that we provided a patch in March. There wasn't a public statement until April.
"But what I think is also important: We need the global community to come together."
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