[florianletsch]

The "cyberwar" which you're undoubtedly referring to is one thing. Mass surveillance of the world's population is something else.

Yes, the future is digital. And yes, there will be dangers from several global parties. But why does the NSA chose to effectively weaken public communication by discovering and using security issues in known protocols instead of making sure those get fixed (if the NSA can find it, who's to say no one else can?).

With their proven effort to make everyone's communication interceptable (and effectively weakening crypto systems in all possible manners) they aren't protecting anyone, but instead putting US companies, US citizens and all global users of the web at an even higher risk.

I haven't even started on the effects on civil rights and freedom of speech of a global surveillance apparatus that is acting in secret and not under democratic control.

If it would be about an arms race, why not enforce secure crypto standards and help the industry in that regard? Clearly it's not about having more "cyber power" than China, North Korea and what have you. Instead, it's about having power on individuals, no matter where they're from.