500 Million+ records stolen from the NSA by one ex-contractor over 20 years!

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ex-nsa-contractor-stole-at-least-500-million-pages-of-records-and-secrets-1476991747

Why do we need this bumbling spy agency again?

[dead0man]

uggg, paywall

alternate link- washington post

I'm curious HOW he got all that stuff off base or how he got access to stuff he wasn't supposed to have access too.....I'm sure the investigators are wondering this too to make sure it doesn't happen again.  A co-worker of mine got his computer access suspended for 2 months for emailing an Excel spreadsheet home that had his online passwords in it, nothing govt related.  On the other hand, I recall a story where a high level person in the State Dep had her own email server and used it to send classified sh**t around and didn't get in any trouble at all, so who knows!

[Enduro]

Why do we need this bumbling spy agency again?

We don't.

[Virginiá]

Why do we need this bumbling spy agency again?

We don't.

Why? Espionage and other spying is moving to the digital realm, and we need to be able to match/overtake our adversaries. The NSA has arguably the most sophisticated surveillance apparatus in the world and it's going to become increasingly necessary to both fight back and defend our networks against Russian and Chinese aggression.

Clearly they have internal issues with keeping information safe among employees, but that's difficult to solve. Given the issues the NSA has faced since Snowden, I imagine they are putting more effort into this, but it will take time.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Relevant.

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[Ban my account ffs!]

Why do we need this bumbling spy agency again?

We don't.

Why? Espionage and other spying is moving to the digital realm, and we need to be able to match/overtake our adversaries. The NSA has arguably the most sophisticated surveillance apparatus in the world and it's going to become increasingly necessary to both fight back and defend our networks against Russian and Chinese aggression.

Clearly they have internal issues with keeping information safe among employees, but that's difficult to solve. Given the issues the NSA has faced since Snowden, I imagine they are putting more effort into this, but it will take time.

I wouldn't necessarily oppose having an NSA that fights foreign cyber security threats (or domestic ones for that matter)...

But only if we have a new bill of rights that guarantees the privacy of Americans.