–Documents Reveal U.S. Government Launched 231 Offensive Cyber Operations in 2011 (31st August)
Classified budget documents released by Edward Snowden to the Washington Post reveal that the U.S. government launched 231 offensive cyber operations in 2011. The documents provide details of a budget aimed at breaking into foreign networks so that they can be put under the control of the U.S. The top countries targeted are China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The documents outline that the NSA develops most of its software, but that it has devoted US$25.2 million for the “additional covert purchases of software vulnerabilities” from private research companies. According to an emailed statement from the NSA to the Washington Post “The Department of Defense does engage” in computer network exploitation but “The department does ***not*** engage in economic espionage in any domain, including cyber.” (más…)

