Analyst's note: Providing this Bloomberg report is true, NSA potentially left the Heartbleed internet security bug open (so they could exploit it for at least two years) not just for hackers and criminals, but for foreign intelligence agencies to exploit. Such actions would certainly NOT constitute U.S. national defense nor defense for our critical infrastructure. I have no way of knowing, but I certainly hope this charge above is NOT true.
"Within hours of Bloomberg's report, the NSA and the White House denied the agency knew about the Heartbleed bug.
"If the Federal government, including the intelligence community, had discovered this vulnerability prior to last week, it would have been disclosed to the community responsible for OpenSSL," White House National Security Council Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said in a statement."
Is our government listening? Time will tell. It might be good to note that an American rebellion against yet another abusive government has begun. The "line in the sand" against government tyranny was finally drawn in Nevada. Winston Churchill said, “The American people invariably do the right thing after they have exhausted all the alternatives.” The reality of exhausted alternatives has forced realism upon more and more people in this nation.
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The National Security Agency knew about the Heartbleed internet security bug for at least two years and not only said nothing, but exploited it, according to anonymous sources speaking to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg reports the agency discovered the glitch shortly after its introduction and it "became a basic part of the agency's toolkit for stealing account passwords and other common tasks."
The bug, which affects the open-source OpenSSL encryption software used by hundreds of thousands of websites, was another means by which the NSA could obtain passwords and other private data.
The NSA's decision to keep the bug a secret in the interest of national security has upset critics, reinvigorating the debate over privacy concerns and the agency's secrecy.
Critics in the computer world claim the move further damages the NSA's credibility, as they potentially left the bug open not just for hackers and criminals, but for foreign intelligence agencies to exploit. [....]
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