NSA knew about Heartbleed for years and exploited it

[FreeThinker]

Why does this not surprise me? I wondered when this news first broke if my own government was behind it, all the while blaming it on Russian or Ukrainian teenagers. What I wonder most, however, is--Why are the American people not marching on Washington? Why aren't Americans, both left and right, outraged to the point of taking action against a government that can intrude into EVERY aspect of our lives now? Why aren't people demanding to know what congressmen- both Republican and Democratic- are going to do about a security apparatus that makes the old KGB look like amateurs?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/11/nsa-heartbleed_n_5134813.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

[Graeme]

On a technical note, not all versions of OpenSSL had this problem. The problem was introduced at some point, and since this is an open-source project, the person who introduced the vulnerability should be able to be identified (to one extent or another). If that person turns out to be a Government employee, then there may be a reason to point the finger to say the vulnerability was added deliberately. If that person turns out to live outside of the USA, then it's just a conspiracy theory that the USA government was involved.

As for whether the NSA knew about it ahead of time, that's a he-said/she-said situation and everyone can believe whichever opinion they want as there's currently no proof either way. At least I haven't seen any proof, merely accusations.

[FreeThinker]

According to the linked article, Bloomberg News, which is a major source in the US for business news and not prone to gossip or conspiracy theories, had two sources for the story. Yes, there are lots of conspiracy theories out there on a variety of issues and there is a lot of speculation about NSA actions, but Bloomberg has built a reputation for solid news and reporting.

[Chris James]

Could it be a simple oops?

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/heartbleed-bug-coder-it-was-simple-programming-error-n78561

[JamesSavik]

Where do you think spyware and viruses come from?

Those of us in Information Tech have known for years that the viruses and worms that we saw on client PCs were entirely too sophisticated to be written by disaffected teenagers.