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A comment on The NSA is just days away from taking over the internet. Parent comment

Re:The NSA is just days away from taking over the internet by coldtea on Wednesday April 17, 2024 @06:12AM (#40062555)
What part doesn't make sense? Any why this wouldn't make sense unless "personal financial gain" was involved?

Even a true believer three letter agency head, thinking he does something good for his country, could have their team use information to blackmail a politician into giving the agency more power or greenlighting this or that operation. No financial or other personal gain need be involved.

And that's the best case of the "true believer". More cynical types (the type that rise in every organization) would also use it to score points within the agency, expand his teams scope and budget, and so on.

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Re:The NSA is just days away from taking over the internet by tgv on Thursday April 18, 2024 @01:37PM (#40078690)
Exactly. There's no point in expanding your team, scope and budget unless you gain something from it, personally. You can't really use that power in the open (it would be conspicuous, and it can't be applied in many practical cases), so it has to be monetary.
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