With the internet, I have never been surprised by US govt shenanigans. The internet is largely a product of the US military. It was originally designed for government communications in nuclear war. I say the same when people mention GPS. It's very civilian appearing but make no mistake it's very much connected to military.
edit to add:
I re-read this piece by Scneier every now and then....
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/opinion/schneier-internet-surv...
Somewhat similar: NSA's Dan Geer on how we are all intelligence officers now.
https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/security-expert-dan-geer-w...
It may have been like that for a long time, but it's not entirely true anymore. The leaks show an emergent trend of cooperation between the western intelligence agencies, i.e. the "fourteen eyes".
This is the most worrying part IMO. Now you have a small elite sitting on enough power to take out anyone or control pretty much all information on the internet. We laugh at Baidu and Yandex, but if these people want something they'll have it.
As if I took a knife and stabbed someone with it, and say well it's not that bad, look those kids over there they fight all the time, see right here the one in shorts here kicked the other one with the baseball cap who's crying.
I mean you can't be seriously suggesting that Namibia can engage in spying as the US does, and this is true for the large majority of the countries around the globe.
1) yes of course I know about HN demographics
2) you should care about that distinciton because this is true for any nation/state.
until such time as we evolve dramtically as a species these types of organizations have a place. it's distasteful perhaps, but a necessary thing.
getting emotional about it impedes a rational consideration.
e.g. US can collect foreigners and UK can collect foreigners?
Do you think spy agencies should be able to swap data about those foreigners?
Because the two in combination allows the UK to spy on US citizens and give it to the US, without the US needing to spy on its citize s
w.r.t. your second question, this is where things start to get grippy. see my response to another question referencing "realpolitik". in this context, then whether or not they should becomes a secondary consideration at the policy level.
The difference is that I come from a country where secret service (both domestic and from other USSR-friendly countries) used to be almost almighty ~25 years ago. And I've seen the damage it inflicted on the society (including some family members) by eliminating any form of dissent or sign of disagreement with the government. Considering how much cheaper and easier dragnet-like surveillance got over the past few years ... well.
You may point out this particular case (compromising SWIFT bureau) is different, i.e. it's the type of action you'd expect from NSA-type intelligence agencies. But it's a mistake to see the agencies as independent / isolated entities. The rest of the leak is however interesting as it shows how hoarding of NOBUS 0days fails, because it's never really NOBUS.