NPR

Government Outlines When It Will Disclose Or Exploit Software Vulnerabilities

The Trump administration put out guidelines for how the government will decide what software vulnerabilities it will share with tech companies to fix, and which ones it will keep to itself for spying.
A laptop in the Netherlands was one of hundreds of thousands infected by ransomware in May. The malware reportedly originated with the NSA.

Government agencies that deal with cybersecurity, like the National Security Agency, have two competing interests. On the one hand, they want to protect America's online infrastructure and economy from cyberattacks. On the other hand, government agencies want to harness tools to attack opponents in cyberspace.

These goals come into conflict when government agencies discover or buy flaws in software, called "zero day" exploits, that the software's makers don't know

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