You may think so, but I don't. Over the years, I've been much impressed by one constant alibi running through US reportage: fed agency "silos" of information, command centers, and IT networks. Sometimes it's a persuasive explanation for congressional patrons bickering over supplementary budget amendments and NEW! special purpose commissions for inveterate contractors. Sometimes it's inexcusable, like 70 years of suburban sprawl.

ANONYMOUS: ... Fresh from the surge, I went to work at NSA in '07 in a supervisory capacity. Fort Meade. You know, I commuted to that massive complex every single day. I was in TAO-S321, "The ROC." TAO is Tailored Access Operations. It's where the NSA hackers work. Of course, we didn't call them that. On net operators, they're the only people at NSA allowed to break in or attack on the internet. Inside TAO headquarters in the ROC, Remote Operations Center. If the US government wants to get in somewhere, it goes to the ROC. I mean, we were flooded with requests, so many that we could only do about 30% of the missions that were requested of at one time throuth the web, but also by hijacking shipments of parts. You know, sometimes the CIA would assist in putting implants in machines, so once inside a target network, we could just watch or we could attack.
—Zero Days