Edward SnowdenVerifierat konto

6) What's new? NSA malware staging servers getting hacked by a rival is not new. A rival publicly demonstrating they have done so is.

7) Why did they do it? No one knows, but I suspect this is more diplomacy than intelligence, related to the escalation around the DNC hack.

8) Circumstantial evidence and conventional wisdom indicates Russian responsibility. Here's why that is significant:

9) This leak is likely a warning that someone can prove US responsibility for any attacks that originated from this malware server.

10) That could have significant foreign policy consequences. Particularly if any of those operations targeted US allies.

11) Particularly if any of those operations targeted elections.

12) Accordingly, this may be an effort to influence the calculus of decision-makers wondering how sharply to respond to the DNC hacks.

13) TL;DR: This leak looks like a somebody sending a message that an escalation in the attribution game could get messy fast.