Re:Glenn Greenwald: The NSA tampers with US-made routers
by dredmorbius on Tuesday May 13, 2014 @08:20AM
(#7737730)
That depends on the specific equipment intercepted and backdoored.
With a router on a key network segment, you're bulk-exploiting a large sector of the population (though there may be other means of doing this).
Generally, device interdiction doesn't scale, it's the sort of targeted surveillance Schneier more-or-less is supportive of.
I'm well aware of the program you're refering to. Have you seen some of the unit costs? That doesn't even include operating costs. The US is already near-bankrupt! Intercepting shipments with look-alike models doesn't really scale to mass surveillance, which is kind of a key point.