Not a big surprise, but yes, the FBI has a vault of “Zero Day” vulnerabilities, and so do other agencies, and not just in the US.
This is exactly the opposite of how things “should” be…ideally a vulnerability is found, a patch or fix is created and then published so everyone is a bit safer. This vault of vulnerabilities works exactly the opposite, and everyone is, therefore, a bit less secure.
The Tor penetration is an example of this: The browser is Firefox based and was compromised (most likely) and cases were brought based on that, but a Federal Judge said that the evidence obtained was obtained illegally, so…*poof*, and the cases disappeared. Of course, other agencies don’t care about courts, so “Stuxnet”, etc. Then, these evolved because criminals got their hands on them…and these intelligence gathering tools, and sabotage tools became tools for criminal activities. That’s how it works.
The San Bernadino i5c…will remain secret because the FBI was smart enough not to buy the hack, so they can’t distribute it…but they’ll use it until Apple figures out (or someone else who’ll sell the solution to Apple) and patches that vulnerability, rendering the hack useless.
Turns out the agencies have meetings about the hacks and whether to reveal them or not…each with its “pros and cons”. At least that much. BUT, vulnerabilities in NSA certified systems must be reported to the NSA to fix (if they didn’t put the vulnerabilities in to begin with).
“Anybody with power, and zero-days are power, is naturally disinclined to give it up for some sort of abstract marginal benefit spread across millions of other people, even if that benefit is cumulatively massive. It’s hard to see how a star-chamber FISA-like review board can effectively advocate for stripping government agencies of that power — even if that would make the public more safe. Expect more of the same; and expect criminals to use exploits that the US government could have closed long ago.” – Jon Evans (Techcrunch)
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” – Spock.
“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.” – A. Einstein.
Source:
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/23/the-fbi-is-working-hard-to-keep-you-unsafe/