Earlier today, Edward Snowden posted the following tweet calling attention to a very important article published at Reuters.

Edward Snowden ✔@Snowden

Huge: USG confirms cyber offense funded at 9x rate of defense. Wonder why we can’t stop foreign hacks? This is why. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-defense-idUSKBN17013U …

The article highlights the fact that U.S. intelligence agencies spend 90% of their budgets on offensive capabilities as opposed to defense. The disastrous results of such an emphasis should be obvious to everyone, all you have to do is look at what this attitude has done to U.S. foreign policy, as well as domestic police departments. When you focus all your spending and energy on developing new weapons, the urge is to find an excuse to use them. Disastrous consequences typically follow (unnecessary SWAT raids and the wholesale destruction of countries).

When it comes to intelligence agencies, the focus on offense results in two horrible outcomes. Less cybersecurity for everyone and an ability for the government to spy on, and hence blackmail, the whole world.

Reuters reports:

When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange disclosed earlier this month that his anti-secrecy group had obtained CIA tools for hacking into technology products made by U.S. companies, security engineers at Cisco Systems swung into action.

That a major U.S. company had to rely on WikiLeaks to learn about security problems well-known to U.S. intelligence agencies underscores concerns expressed by dozens of current and former U.S. intelligence and security officials about the government’s approach to cybersecurity.

That policy overwhelmingly emphasizes offensive cyber-security capabilities over defensive measures, these people told Reuters, even as an increasing number of U.S. organizations have been hit by hacks attributed to foreign governments.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…