• The NSA has its own team of elite hackers
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/29/the-nsa-has-its-own-team-of-elite-hackers

    So just what is Tailored Access Operations ? According to a profile by Matthew M. Aid for Foreign Policy, it’s a highly secret but incredibly important NSA program that collects intelligence about foreign targets by hacking into their computers, stealing data, and monitoring communications . Aid claims TAO is also responsible *****for developing programs that could destroy or damage foreign computers and networks via cyberattacks if commanded to do so by the presid e* n* t* .
    So, TAO might have had something to do with the development of Stuxnet and Flame , malware programs thought to have been jointly developed by the U.S. and Israel. The malware initially targeted the Iranian nuclear program, but quickly made its way into the digital wild.
    According to Aid, TAO’s primary base is in the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade. There, he says, some 600 members of the unit work rotating shifts 24-7 in an “ultramodern” space at the center of the base called the Remote Operations Center (ROC).