The National Security Agency reportedly has plans to control millions of computers by infecting them with malware, according to documents leaked to The Intercept by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Like most leaks, we don’t know the impacts of the project or if they are on-going.
“In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social media site as a launching pad to infect a target’s computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive. In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone and take snapshots with its webcam,” explain The Intercept’s Ryan Gallagher and Glenn Greenwald.
The documents reveal that the NSA’s plans to infect networks was once reserved for a few hundred targets, but quickly ballooned into a larger scale project to hunt out suspects.
“The NSA began rapidly escalating its hacking efforts a decade ago. In 2004, according to secret internal records, the agency was managing a small network of only 100 to 150 implants,” explains The Intercept.