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The NSA and its allies have raided the pockets of independent and nation-state hackers and monitored some of the security industry's foremost researchers in its bid to hoover information on targets and find better ways to break systems, Snowden documents reveal. Spooks would monitor the work of 'freelance' and rival state …

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  1. Chairo

    "take" is a new one. In the dictionary I can find "booty, spoils, plunder, stolen goods, contraband, pillage". Perhaps "take" should be added, as well.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Unreliable, uncorroborated, untrustworthy would be other terms.

      "We have stolen files from KGB hackers and they reveal that Mr Obama is a North Korean agent....."

      Remember the "we found a document on the internet that said Iraq had WMD"?

      6 3 Reply
      1. Robert Helpmann??
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        Trollface

        Avast!

        "We have stolen files from KGB hackers...

        Unauthorized copying is not theft!

        4 0 Reply
        1. Graham Marsden
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          Black Helicopters

          @Robert Helpmann?? - Re: Avast!

          > Unauthorized copying is not theft!

          Not when The State is doing it...

          1 0 Reply
      2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Facepalm

        Re: Yet Another Anon Cluetard

        ".....Remember the "we found a document on the internet that said Iraq had WMD"?" Wow, you're still having problems getting past that? Why don't you go read about the WMDs found (by the UN) on the ground - http://www.iraqwatch.org.

        1 5 Reply
        1. Captain Hogwash
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          Re: Yet Another Anon Cluetard

          Hi Matt. Fancy a big shiny spoon?

          2 2 Reply
        2. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Yet Another Anon Cluetard

          "Why don't you go read about the WMDs found (by the UN) on the ground."

          Yeah, the US supplied ones for murdering Iranians...

          1 1 Reply
      3. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Correction...(All depends on your perspective) @Y.A.A.c.

        That's as believable as the following:

        "We have stolen files from KGB hackers and they reveal that Obama is actually a Kenyan born Muslim and supports the Muslim Brotherhood".

        Strange how that supports Obama's reluctance to label ISIS as Islamic Terrorists.

        2 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Strange how that supports Obama's reluctance

          Nothing strange about it at all. In fact, if you start from that assumption, all the decisions he's made that the talking heads keep saying make no sense start to make perfect sense.

          1 1 Reply
      4. Tail Up
        Reply Icon

        Wow

        North Korean O/o ?

        0 0 Reply
    2. David Pollard
      Reply Icon

      @Claire: 'Take' is slang commonly used by crooks, but you probably don't meet that many of them. Its use probably derives from 'takings', which is listed in Chambers. See also the Urban Dictionary, definition 3.

      http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Take

      1 0 Reply
      1. Tom 13
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        Re: 'Take' is slang commonly used by crooks

        Doesn't even have to be crooks. Most common usage I know of is "What was the take at the door?" for movies or other live entertainment.

        0 0 Reply
    3. Mike VandeVelde
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      take

      http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/on-the-take

      WMD in Iraq, they obviously didn't look hard enough, they're all over:

      http://www.fpx.de/fp/WebLog/2003/iraq-du.html

      Oh, and:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah_during_the_Iraq_War

      According to professor Noam Chomsky, "Fallujah,..., was one of the worst atrocities of the 21st century."

      0 2 Reply
    4. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      re: "take" is a new one

      Presumably they thought that "pirate" might have connotations of law breaking.

      Or that it had been trademarked already.

      ;)

      0 1 Reply
  2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Virtual Trojans Bearing Corrupting Gifts ....

    ..... for behind National Security and Sublime Internetional Defence Firewalls/Cyber Controlled Command.

    Hello and welcome, dull and dismal austere worlds, to the wild wacky webs of Relatively Advanced Active Autonomous AI and Acquired Intelligence .... which y'all surely should know is placed there/here/everywhere for the collective anonymous taking.

    4 2 Reply
  3. overhere2000

    Basically..

    This is all going to end badly but I just don't know what the size, width or depth of the shaft will be.

    2 1 Reply
  4. Sir Runcible Spoon
    Facepalm

    Sir

    I foresee some snares in future 'takes'

    2 1 Reply
  5. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    The NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive Age Dilemma and Enigmatic Solution for Problem Protocols

    When is an ACT, APT, and an APT, ACTive and creative disruptive and immaculately destructive?

    Whenever IT is loaded and loded with Advanced Persistent Truths for Anonymous Collective Taking.

    And a little something for 77th Brigade types to harness?

    1 1 Reply
  6. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Re: Lovely Horse

    Best code name ever!

    Father Ted and Dougal would agree:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzYzVMcgWhg

    3 0 Reply
    1. Captain Hogwash
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      Re: Lovely Horse

      That's almost certainly where the code name comes from. Because "I can get this."

      1 0 Reply
  7. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Go

    But, but, but....

    Didn't so many of the ovine posters on these forums insist their fave skiddie crews would never be caught, that The Man was simply "too stupid"? This is just more proof that the NSA and chums are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, and doing it well.

    0 6 Reply
    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: But, but, but.... there be New Bods in the Hood

      Howdy, Matt Bryant,

      There appears to be a resounding consensus of particular and peculiar opinion that .... Your shepherding skills are lost here on the Canny and Savvy El Regers.

      And it is as well to accept, in order to be in any considered remotely effective, the Great Games to be played for Future Command and Universal Control require a quite wholly different Grand Mastery than is popularly ubiquitously shared or formerly practised in either secretive Loyal and/or Religious and/or Royal type Dark Matter Orders.

      0 3 Reply
  8. Stevie

    Bah!

    So the NSA have stolen data from black hat hackers instead of hacking it firsthand.

    And they've paid attention to the foremost experts in the computer security business.

    Er ...

    Good ... ?

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bah!

      Umm, when when Western states use "the ends justifies the means" argument when it comes to law enforcement, we may as well have given up and gone to live in China or Russia. We wouldn't notice the difference :(

      1 1 Reply

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