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NEWS FROM THE LAB - Thursday, March 13, 2014
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On NSA Hijacking of IRC Bots Posted by Sean @ 14:03 GMT

Hijacking a botnet. Is it ethical? No.

Not without very careful coordination with law enforcement — and in that case, you want to shut it down.

You don't want to hijack it. At least… not if you're ethical.

But what if you're an intelligence agency?

When then apparently the answer is: absolutely, yes.

According to recently disclosed documents, the NSA had hijacked up to 140,000 bots by 2007.

Quantumbot, Takes control of idle IRC bots

Quantumbot.

Quantumbot, Highly Successful
Source: There Is More Than One Way to Quantum

And they didn't stop in 2007. Another document includes details about Quantumbot 2.

Combination of Q-Bot/Q-Biscuit
Source: The NSA and GCHQ�s QUANTUMTHEORY Hacking Tactics

The NSA: a morally and ethically bankrupt institution that makes others feel silly for bothering with due process.

Thanks.