This article states the NSA developed an exploit for a product made by a Chinese networking and telecommunications firm. Honest question for HN readers inside the US: does anyone seriously have a problem with this? In my mind it falls squarely within the NSA's mission, i.e. this is we pay them to do! Question for HN readers outside the US: can you credibly claim your intelligence agencies aren't trying to do the same thing?<p>For those thinking about whether such things could be used inside the United States. Of course they can. So can all the equipment and weapons the military buys. And it's happened before! The gun in the Fort Hood shootings was bought and paid for by US tax dollars and it was used to kill a civilian. So this raises the question, is the military to be trusted with weaponry it needs for its defense mission even though they could be used in the US? Similarly, is the NSA to be trusted with exploits it needs for its SIGINT mission? Interesting question. An infantryman could go rogue at any time and use his service weapon against US citizens and someone at the NSA could use an exploit for personal gain, but on the whole I believe the system accounts for these possibilities in a reasonable and controlled way.<p>If this information is true, it seems a little crazy to me to be propagating it since there isn't really a domestic/whistleblower angle. At least, no more of a domestic angle than the military developing a new missile. Some of Snowden's disclosures are responsible for starting a productive civil liberties debate in the United States, there's no denying that. But these disclosures are ones of a different color in my opinion.