U.S. GOVERNMENT HACKING TECHNOLOGIES SEEM JUST A BIT SUSPICIOUS

Huge: USG confirms cyber offense funded at 9x rate of defense. Wonder why we can't stop foreign hacks? This is why. https://t.co/qug3LY16Bt pic.twitter.com/q0Zhn7FRxG

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 30, 2017

From Reuters:

A scramble at Cisco exposes uncomfortable truths about U.S. cyber defense 

When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange disclosed earlier this month that his anti-secrecy group had obtained CIA tools for hacking into technology products made by U.S. companies, security engineers at Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) swung into action. 

The Wikileaks documents described how the Central Intelligence Agency had learned more than a year ago how to exploit flaws in Cisco's widely used Internet switches, which direct electronic traffic, to enable eavesdropping. 

Senior Cisco managers immediately reassigned staff from other projects to figure out how the CIA hacking tricks worked, so they could help customers patch their systems and prevent criminal hackers or spies from using the same methods, three employees told Reuters on condition of anonymity. 

The Cisco engineers worked around the clock for days to analyze the means of attack, create fixes, and craft a stopgap warning about a security risk affecting more than 300 different products, said the employees, who had direct knowledge of the effort. 

That a major U.S. company had to rely on WikiLeaks to learn about security problems well-known to U.S. intelligence agencies underscores concerns expressed by dozens of current and former U.S. intelligence and security officials about the government's approach to cybersecurity. 

That policy overwhelmingly emphasizes offensive cyber-security capabilities over defensive measures, these people told Reuters, even as an increasing number of U.S. organizations have been hit by hacks attributed to foreign governments.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS:

TechRepublic: Is the Intel Management Engine a backdoor? 

Is Intel's Management Engine a backdoor for security groups and hackers, or just a feature created to aid businesses? Jack Wallen dives in and draws his conclusions.