Is America Still Number One At Hacking?

CYBER

VICE

Tech News, News & Politics, Technology, News

4 • 645 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It used to be that American hackers and the NSA were the unquestionable world’s best. Following the many revelations from the Snowden leaks, it became clear the U.S. government had not only violated the civil liberties of American citizens, but the NSA had done an excellent job hacking, well, everything. It hacked the phones of world leaders (including key allies) and made major geopolitical rivals China and Russia very nervous.

But, like everything else in the world, American hegemony in cyberspace has quickly faded as the proverbial American empire looks like it's in quick decline for a variety of obvious reasons. And when it comes to hacking powers across the world, it’s been widely reported that everyone from China to private mercenaries have caught up to the hacking skills of American hackers.

So for our Independence Day edition of CYBER, Motherboard reporter Lorenzo Francheschi Bicchiarrai and host Ben Makuch are discussing America’s standing among the world powers of cyberspace.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Tann, it's got the code it's going to launch.
0:10.8	It's a unit system.
0:13.2	I know this.
0:15.1	It's all the files of the whole park.
0:17.3	It tells her everything.
0:19.1	Sir, he's uploading the virus.
0:21.6	The Eagle One, the package is being delivered.
0:24.6	Used to be that American hackers in the NSA were the unrivaled world number ones at the cyber.
0:29.6	America, fuck yeah.
0:32.6	But like most other things in the world, American hegemony in cyberspace has quickly faded,
0:38.2	as the empire looks like it's in decay.
0:41.2	When it comes to hacking powers across the world, many countries have caught up to the
0:45.8	U.S. of A.
0:47.4	So as July 4th nears, Lorenzo Franceschi Bikirai and I are going to be discussing America's
0:52.7	standing among the world powers of cyberspace.
0:56.0	And yes, that's right. Two immigrants to your country are going to be discussing the status of American exceptionalism.
1:03.6	I'm Ben Maku, and this is cyber.
1:14.5	Happy Fourth of July, Lorenza.
1:17.1	Happy Independence Day.
1:19.0	Are you watching the movie again this weekend? You know what?
1:21.1	Now that you say it, it does bring together to my favorite things.
1:25.3	Nineties, Will Smith, aliens. And I think Bill, is now Bill Merr,
	...

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