>>>http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/12/30/1646227/the-startling-array-of-hacking-tools-in-nsas-armory
>>>
>>>Yet more erosion of trust in the entire IT industry.
>>
>>Considering the stale joke "The best job application for the NSA is to hack it's database" - does it really surprise you that the NSA has all these 'tools'?
>
>Intellectually I knew they had certain capabilities. But some of them are surprising to me e.g. intercepting shipment of routers, servers etc. from mfr to customer and installing software and/or hardware backdoors. How can stuff like that be legal? Are they a rogue operation?
>
>This is getting serious. Earlier this year Australia banned Huawei from bidding on its NBN due to fears over security issues: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/government-maintains-nbn-ban-on-chinese-telco-huawei-after-secu/5051622 . Clearly now there is reason to believe the US govt/NSA could similarly backdoor Cisco, Juniper etc. equipment destined for China or other sensitive locations. Those companies will scream when they get banned from bidding on contracts. Even domestic customers will have second thoughts.

"Intercepting equipment" is one possibility. The other is that the companies named are complicit, and that the malware was installed at the factory.