XKeyScore is a way to search through metadata and content on the web but it has capabilities to analyse VoIP. This is NSA most versatile programme yet designed to be applied and used in many different scenarios, with the help of this tool they could hack in to the “internal network of the largest of cell phone SIM cards” to obtain the encryption keys so they can monitor mobile communications. This tool allows the NSA to take advantage of the companies monitoring their own users through cookies and IP address whether they are connected over public networks or VPNs.[9]

These are just some of the resources the government has available to use; there are many more projects that have the same if not many more capabilities. Government has always ensured us that these measures are essential for our security and protection. However, before technology became this advanced crime rates were lower. By increasing our knowledge, have we endangered ourselves? I question this as since recently, US cybercrime rate is 23% more than any other country.[10]

Conspiracy Theories

Regarding Network surveillance, there are many different theories which may or may not influence the public’s perception of state monitoring schemes, as well as the resources used by the government.

There are many conspiracy theories about the NSA. Recently ‘The Shadow Brokers’ a hacking group, published on the 15th of August the vast number of cyber weapons used by the NSA for network exploitation. [11] The archives of the files were released on Twitter, GitHub and many other sites. The first archived released held up to “300MB” of data. After the data was made publicly available, the RiskBased Security stated that the it was not possible for them to be genuine tools available to the NSA. However, after further investigation Cisco verified that this attack was indeed real and that this compromised the security of tools and the NSA.

In June 2013 Edward Snowden exposed the USA’s biggest mass surveillance scheme, where he released a set of documents defining the resources the government use to monitor public behaviour. Not only did Edward Snowden expose the schemes in the USA but also ‘Tempora’, which is a surveillance scheme established in the UK by the GCHQ.

The Shadow Brokers were able to exploit the government network and breach their security protocols, without having access to the advance tools available to the government. So, should the public trust