The surprise is surely that a group expected to use complex and highly technical exploits which come from the minds of top government crackers instead uses years old hacks distributed with a tool known, rightly or wrongly, as the preserve of script-kiddies everywhere?
Who exactly are the "top government crackers"? Probably not the FBI. It's unlikely that the CIA or NSA would give the FBI the time of day, let along give them access to the latest exploits. Many reports have highlighted the lack of cooperation between government agencies. E.g. [1]
agency cultures resistant to change and
new ideas; inappropriate incentives for
promotion; and a lack of cooperation
between the FBI, CIA and the rest of
the United States Intelligence Community.
...
FBI personnel practices continue to treat
all staff other than special agents as
support staff, classifying intelligence
analysts alongside the FBI's auto mechanics
and janitors
Who knows if any of that is true anymore, but it's unlikely that giant organizations (especially government bureaucracies) can change their stripes in timeframes shorter than decades.
>Who exactly are the "top government crackers"? //
I was saying that was the expectation, that one perceives that the government has the best people on the job, the brightest minds in the pen community. I'm open to that not being true but surely with their financial clout the US Gov has some such people at hand whether that be in the NSA/FBI or [other] armed forces?
Why would they use their own tools and risk revealing them to the public when they can use a recognized existing tool and mask their full capabilities?
