Background:

Hidden in the report which the White House panel on NSA released today is a stunning implication: that the U.S. government has been using its massive offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts and otherwise manipulating financial systems.

Specifically, the panel’s report states (page 221):

(1) Governments should not use surveillance to steal industry secrets to advantage their domestic industry; (2) Governments should not use their offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial systems ….

The government certainly massively manipulates the economy and financial system.

There are already numerous examples of offensive cyber actions by the NSA:

A high-level intelligence source said, “we hack everyone everywhere”

The largest German newspaper – Süddeutsche Zeitung – alleges that the U.S. government helped Monsanto attack the computers of activists opposed to genetically modified food

Edward Snowden says that NSA spying is used for “diplomatic manipulation”

And we’ve long noted that the U.S. government manipulates social media and news through cyber manipulation

As spying expert Trevor Timm from the Electronic Frontier Foundation Tweeted (and Glenn Greenwald – who has seen the Snowden documents – re-tweeted):

Does this NSA report recommendation imply that NSA is conducting offensive cyber attacks against financial systems?

Remember, the NSA is tapping into and spying on the biggest financial payments systems such as VISA and Swift.

Top financial experts say that the NSA and other intelligence agencies are using information gained from spying to profit from this inside information. And the NSA wants to ramp up its spying on Wall Street … to “protect” it.

Whose money, exactly, is the NSA “protecting” … and how are they protecting it?

What about the money of people that the U.S. government considers undesirables?